Acquisitions and its corresponding agreement is one of the most crucial steps during the entire process where a business acquires and takes over another business. It may be a small or a huge business – depending of course on the deal and the terms and conditions that have been made. Simply said, this is the entire method of selling a business to someone who might be interested to take over, depending on the assets, liabilities and other essential factors, which can also generally affect the overall cost of the business for sale.
If you are planning on acquiring another establishment, you have to check a huge number of factors that can affect its price and some other factors that could affect your deal. Remember – people have their reasons for selling their businesses; most of the time, they are selling it because they feel like they are not generating revenues from it – and before you even acquire the business and do the legal agreement, you have to figure out how it will benefit you.
Acquisitions may come in two different forms: asset purchase agreement and the entity purchase agreement. Asset purchase agreements are being done where the buyer pays for the properties (both tangible and intangible). Tangible properties may include office equipment, real estate and inventory, while the intangible properties may include but not limited to trademarks, patents, trade secrets and even copyrights. Asset purchase agreements also include buying all the assets that the business has. This is where the price will generally vary.
On the other hand, the entity purchase agreement is the type where the buyer purchases the shares of the company; if not, the majority of it and all its entity. As soon as this form of agreement has been made, the new owner of the company will take charge of everything that needs to be taken care of within the company, which includes the duties and obligations, and the debts of that particular company.
Choosing the right form of acquisitions of businesses may play an important role in terms of determining your success. Bear in mind that these forms may generally depend on the current status of the company, the assets available and the entities that the company for sale holds. It is best that you ask legal advice from a professional so that you can easily determine which type of agreement works best and which one suits your needs the most. Sometimes, buyers tend to lose a lot of money because they have been going for the wrong model or type of acquisition – and if you want to avoid these things from happening, and if you want to make sure that you will benefit from acquiring the business, you need to conduct more research and even spend time finding more about the entire process.
At first, acquisitions of businesses may sound really exciting, especially if you have a lot of plans for that company. But the thing is, these are methods that you do not have to rush – these are things that should be taken into account carefully, not to mention the fact that you will be investing a lot of money on that particular business.
21 August 2012