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  • Transaction Concepts for Acquiring Print and Graphics Communicatoins Who Have Multiple Partners (Part One)
    By John Hyde - Monday January 28, 2013
    The dynamics of family-owned and entrepreneurial companies raise unique challenges for strategic acquirers. This is the first blog post in a series of 3 that will offer several transaction concepts for acquiring print and graphics communications companies who have multiple partners. We regularly advice clients who are growing by strategic acquisition to strive for a win-win transaction with the target company partners. Disgruntled former owners are bad for business. They can cause morale problems, disrupt efforts to connect with customers, and disseminate negative messages into the marketplace which could chill other M&A opportunities. So what approach is most likely to get selling shareholders to say “YES” to the offer’s...

  • 3 Tips for Exploring Strategic Transactions Involving Partners
    By John Hyde - Wednesday January 23, 2013
    An NAPL client calls with an opportunity to acquire/merge with a leading company in the region. The complicating factor is the ownership structure: one partner with 51% (woman-owned) and 4 others combined 49%. The shareholder issues involved in the pending opportunity are not unique. The print and graphics communications industry is full of family-owned partnerships. Ownership dynamics are complex and involve elements of succession planning, business valuation, and M&A, all under the backdrop of a rapidly changing industry. The M&A advisory team at NAPL has handled numerous ownership restructuring/M&A cases over the past few years. A few tips from prior experience: 1. Get to know the other partners as soon as politically correct...

  • Takeaways from 2013 EFI Connect
    By Denise Gustavson - Tuesday January 22, 2013
    Last week I had the opportunity to attend EFI’s Connect conference at the Wynn Las Vegas. Now in its 14th year, EFI Connect caters to graphic arts business leaders' need for continued innovation and education and profitable growth opportunities. Graphic arts professionals had the opportunity to participate in more than 150 sessions covering MIS/ERP software, Web-to-print systems, industrial inkjet printers, and Fiery technology. In addition to featuring VUTEk, EFI Wide Format and Jetrion inkjet production printers, Connect included a newly enhanced line of JDF-certified Fiery digital front ends, as well as a complete lineup of EFI Productivity Software products. EFI also demonstrated systems from its two recent acquisitions...

  • Tis the Season for Mergers and Acquisitions
    By John Hyde - Friday January 4, 2013
    Seasonality is one factor that drives the velocity of mergers and acquisitions activity among privately-owned print and graphics communications companies. It’s fair to say that M&A activity directly correlates to family sensitivities. Holidays bring families together both literally and figuratively, and, given that at least 25% of companies in our industry are family businesses, it’s no surprise that what goes on at the dining room table ends up in the conference room six to nine months later. Communications right after the New Year go something like this: “I’ve been thinking that this is the year to ‘do something’ with the business. My wife [substitute husband for woman-owned companies] and I talked over the holidays and it...

  • Tomorrow's World is Packaging and Industrial Print
    By Frazer Chesterman - Thursday January 3, 2013
    Just after Drupa, Andy Tribute - Print guru – claimed that the future for print lay in the opportunities for inkjet technology in both packaging and Industrial Print. He explained "Inkjet technology has lots of potential in these areas. They are both getting better and better in terms of quality, and these markets are ones that will drive print forward. It is worth owning some intellectual property within the industrial space, at least." I believe he is right, let me explain why? Most manufacturers agree that the huge growth of Digital graphics which probably began around between 2002 -2005 and has continued to grow, is now maturing, some would even say stagnating! The great migration from analogue to digital in sign and graphics...

  • How to Say What You Don’t Want to Say
    By Tom Crouser - Wednesday December 26, 2012
    None of us like confrontations, least not business owners regardless of how ruff and gruff they appear. So how do you deliver a message that you really don’t want to deliver? I don’t have all the answers, but I do have one and here it is: write a script. No, not a lengthy melodramatic script. Write a script like I had my friend in Connecticut write. Here’s the background. Marty is a great guy. So great that some workers found it easy to get what they wanted. Don was such a guy. He was a CSR who worked from 5:00 am to 2:00 pm every day. That’s right, 5:00 am. Why? It wasn’t because Marty needed him to work those hours; rather it was an accommodation to Don. He was a single parent and his daughter got off from school at 3:00 and...

  • Three M&A Lessons Learned from Two Leaders Joining Forces
    By John Hyde - Tuesday November 27, 2012
    The recently announced M&A transaction involving Hutchison Allgood and Graphic Visual Solutions contributes three lessons learned to the continuing conversation about growth by strategic transaction in the print and graphics communications industry. Lesson 1: Privately-owned Companies Make M&A Risk-Reward Decisions with Both Rigorous Analysis and Entrepreneurial Gut Graphic Visual Solutions owners Bryan & Wendy Hall stepped up to the plate "big time" with this investment. It would be a mistake to think that the structure involves shared equity or other "merger"-like consideration. This is about real money with well-thought out risk and reward analysis. Kudos to the Graphic Visual Solutions team for "doing it the right way." But...

  • Small Business Saturday: Bah, Humbug
    By Tom Crouser - Monday November 26, 2012
    At the risk of sounding anti-American, please allow me to react to the concept of Small Business Saturday: bah, humbug! Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against small business. I’m not against picking up a few extra bucks in sales or potentially a new customer. I’m against the concept that we small business owners have to be given special protection in order to survive, like the snail darter. “Pick a small business in your community to shop at on Small Business Saturday,” the ad on television says. Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski do a stand-up patronization spot in which they implore good Americans to patronize small businesses. Hey, it’s about competition. And if a small business can’t compete alongside Wal-Mart, Target...

  • Revenge of the Pixels: How My E-Reader Dealt a Blow
    By Karen Hall - Friday October 26, 2012
    As he handed me my birthday gift last year, my son said, “Mom, before you open this I have to warn you that I’ve committed sacrilege.” He spoke the truth. Resting inside the wrappings was a Nook e-reader. To get the full impact of this, you need to understand that when I say Bob and I are book people, it’s like saying the ocean is a tad damp. After a recent cleaning frenzy, we delivered three boxes and several large bags of books to the library for its annual fund-raiser. I have no idea where we must have put them because every shelf is still full. At any rate, I thanked my son for the gift and set it next to my comfy chair. It sat there for months. Finally, curiosity got the better of me and I read one of the books my son had...

  • Taxing Questions about End of Year Equipment Purchases
    By Tom Crouser - Tuesday October 23, 2012
    Is your accountant telling you that the upcoming end of the tax year (for calendar year filers) is time to buy equipment to save money? It’s not as cut and dried as that, so I again this year issue my annual warning about the downside of this practice. I say it’s time to review any upcoming purchases, but don’t be panicked into spending now because you may regret it later. According to http://www.section179.org/section_179_deduction.html ( www.Section179.org ) the 2012 deduction limit is $139,000. This is the amount of new or used equipment (or software) you may purchase, put into service, and write off as a direct deduction to your income this year. What’s bad about that? Nothing is bad, specifically. What’s bad is the...

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