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  • Strategic Acquirers Open Up Financials for Sellers
    By John Hyde - Tuesday May 21, 2013
    Could you imagine buying a house and the seller asks to review your financial analysis showing how much money you’re going to make from the investment? Residential real estate practice would consider this an absurd request, instantly denied. The buyer is paying the agreed-upon price in full with cash at closing and the seller has no reason to pry into the buyer’s affairs. But in the crazy world of strategic M&A among privately-owned print, mail and graphics communications companies, seller due diligence into the buyer is hardly an exception. In fact, right now the NAPL M&A advisory team is handling three client matters each of which involves full disclosure by the buyer of the analysis that supports the transaction. One involves a $20...

  • 3D Printing Will Have No Effect on Business Valuations for the 28,000 Companies in the Print, Mail and Graphics Communications Industry
    By John Hyde - Monday May 6, 2013
    3D Printing will have no effect on business valuations of print, mail, and graphics communications companies—for the foreseeable future. Simply, owners and senior managers of privately-owned print providers will need to look elsewhere than 3D Printing for growth. This technology may someday be relevant and perhaps even “disruptive,” but today it has zero relevance to the 28,000 or so companies in the domestic USA that operate within the $80 billion printing industry. A recent visit to the Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo at New York’s Jacob Javitz Convention Center served as my foray into 3D Printing. The word “3D” next to the word “Printing” sparked my interest, knowing that my clients among privately-owned...

  • 3 Lessons Learned from Succession Plan at Kingery Corporation
    By John Hyde - Monday April 22, 2013
    The recent NAPL News Talk Live program on Exit Strategy had an M&A-orientation because “sale of business” has overtaken “gifting to children” as the roadmap of choice in the print, mail and graphics communications industry. The one panelist on the webinar who implemented a non- M&A succession plan is John Kingery, Chairman of Kingery Printing Corporation. Succession planning was the farthest thing from John Kingery’s mind until a day in 1991 when he realized that the government would end up with substantial wealth that otherwise would go to his family. Simply, Kingery Printing had become too profitable to risk passing away without a plan for minimizing estate taxes. The roots of Kingery Printing can be traced to a...

  • 3 Ways to Get a Better Night's Sleep
    By John Hyde - Friday April 5, 2013
    If you own a company in the printing, mail, and graphics communications industry, you probably know someone who is near the end of survivability or you’re treading water yourself these days. If neither of these apply to you, skip “Last Chance” and go to “Planning”. Last Chance: For owners who wake up at night worrying that their business is circling the proverbial drain, here are 3 critical factors that can make a difference in the quality of whatever outcome takes place over the next few days/weeks/month(s): 1. Connect with friendly local competitors; despite what you may think, they are the most likely candidates to buy assets and hire you (and some of your people) 2. Be open minded and rely heavily on a trusted advisor...

  • Remembering "Acquiring Sales Without the Baggage" — 10 Years Later
    By John Hyde - Tuesday March 5, 2013
    Remarkably, it’s 10 years ago this month that I was invited to speak at the NAPL Top Management Conference on the topic of “Acquiring Sales Without the Baggage”. Reflecting on “then” and “now”, royalty transactions in 2003 were a negative backwater of printing industry M&A. They grew in popularity from 2003 to 2006, and were literally the only game in town until 2011. We’ve seen a return to EBITDA-based transactions since then, and our M&A practice has also seen cases in which investment paradigm such as ROI or cash yield on investment has worked their way into recent negotiations. n 2003, we were coming off the internet boom and blowback from the wave of consolidations that had shook up the landscape of the print and...

  • Transaction Concepts for Acquiring Print and Graphics Communications who have Multiple Partners (Part Two)
    By John Hyde - Monday February 4, 2013
    The dynamics of family-owned and entrepreneurial companies raise unique challenges for strategic acquirers. This is the second blog post in a series of 3 that offers several transaction concepts for acquiring print and graphics communications companies who have multiple partners. The CEO of the potential acquirer is disappointed that, for whatever reason, the deal has stalled after promising early talks. It’s been weeks since he/she brought up the idea of buying all or substantially all assets of the business so that each partner gets a fair deal based on objective criteria ( “Plan A” ). The lead partner of the seller “comes clean” and admits that the partners are not on the same page about whether and how to sell the...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

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