Business Transactions

Risky Representations – Part 2

February 13, 2012 | Structure Law Group, LLP

As a merger and acquisition lawyer in Silicon Valley, I have been involved in numerous business transactions, from small startups transferring their technologies after getting acquired by other companies, to medium-sized and larger technology and pharmaceutical companies going public. With Facebook’s impending IPO, many companies in San Jose, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and Mountain View are expecting another technology boom. A company hoping to take advantage of the imminent dot-com boom and sell its business should make sure its books are in order and hire a good M&A attorney to prepare an acquisition agreement.

As discussed in my last blog, a seller will often make a number of commitments to a buyer concerning the seller’s business. These commitments, known as representations and warranties, allocate between the buyer and seller many of the risks existing in the seller’s business.

One of the most important documents accompanying the representations and warranties is a schedule that describes certain items requested to be disclosed, and any exceptions to the content of the representations and warranties. This document, which goes by “Schedule of Exceptions” or “Disclosure Schedule,” is really a description of the main documents and key agreements of the seller, and disclosures of material facts concerning the buyer and its operations. It can often take as much time to prepare and negotiate as the acquisition agreement itself. There are a number of things the seller can do to help expedite the preparation of this document.

First, keep good corporate records. As I discussed in my blog on due diligence, organizing the seller’s major documents, and making sure they are readily available, will considerably reduce the time to close the transaction.

Second, appoint someone who has intimate knowledge of the seller and its operations to assist in gathering requested documentation and answer the inevitable questions. Typically, the company’s chief financial officer or controller will fill this role.

Third, get all of the documents to the company’s attorney as soon as possible. The lawyers will need to review the documents and decide what types of schedules and disclosures will be required. This is a very time consuming process.

Fourth, discuss early on any areas where the company thinks a buyer might be concerned. This is not a time to sweep difficult issues under the rug, but a time to get them out in the open. There is nothing worse than being blind-sided at the last minute with the proverbial skeleton in the closet. Worse, failing to disclose difficult issues known to management can lead to a fraud claim, a claim for which the seller’s liability is never limited. Areas that raise concerns include any transactions between the seller and any of its insiders, litigation and threats of litigation, and accounting irregularities.

Fifth, start preparing the Disclosure Schedule as soon as possible. Attorneys that are experienced in acquisition transactions are aware of the likely representations that will be requested, and can start organizing and preparing the substance of the Disclosure Schedule even before the acquisition agreement is distributed. Delivering a completed Disclosure Schedule to buyer’s counsel sooner rather than later will surface any issues so they can be resolved in a timely manner.

Sixth, review the Disclosure Schedule with your attorney to determine if any issues exist that will delay closing. There are two major areas that need to be reviewed. The first is the approval that is required for the transaction to proceed. Almost always, this will involve approval by the board of directors and the shareholders of the Company. It may require preparation and delivery of a separate disclosure document to the shareholders to assist them in determining whether to approve the transaction. The second is the existence of any material agreements, desired by the buyer to operate the business, that require approval of the other party in order to close the transaction.

Risky Representations – Part 1

February 6, 2012 | Structure Law Group, LLP

Those endless representations and warranties in your acquisition agreement aren’t just for your merger and acquisition lawyer. Ignore them at your own risk.

Mergers and acquisitions in San Jose and elsewhere are a lot more complex than those of the past when deals were closed with a handshake. As acquisition documentation becomes more extensive, companies frequently turn to mergers and acquisitions attorneys to assist them with their transactions. One issue on which an attorney will focus deals with the representations and warranties of a seller.

A seller’s representations and warranties, which are the commitments that a seller will make to a buyer concerning the state of the seller’s business, make up one of the more extensive sections of an acquisition agreement and serve a number of functions. This is because they allocate between the buyer and seller many of the risks existing in the buyer’s business.

Representations allocate risk in a fairly straightforward manner. The seller will make a statement of fact regarding its business. If the seller’s statement is wrong, and the buyer is damaged as a result, the seller will compensate the buyer for any damages the buyer incurs.

An example helps illustrate the point. Let’s say that the seller states that it has paid all of its taxes, a very common representation. After the closing, the business that was sold gets hit with a sales tax audit, and is found to have underpaid its sales taxes. Because the seller’s representation was wrong (i.e., it hadn’t paid all of its taxes), the buyer, all other things being equal, can look to the seller for reimbursement for the amount of the additional sales tax liability.

The situation above describes the simplest form of risk allocation in an acquisition agreement. In this form, the seller bears the risk whether the seller knew there was a problem or not.

Some types of risk allocation shift risk only if the seller knew there was a problem. These representations, sometimes referred to as knowledge-qualified representations, allow a seller to escape liability in a representation if the seller did not know a problem existed.

In our sales tax example above, let’s say that the representation stated that the seller did not know of any nonpayment of taxes. Let’s also say that the seller’s officers were completely unaware that they had failed to pay any sales taxes. In that situation, the seller would not be liable for the sales tax liability.

Because acquisition agreements are prepared by lawyers, the concept of knowledge can mean different things. For example, does knowledge mean the subjective knowledge of the seller’s CEO, or the subjective knowledge of all of the seller’s employees? Does knowledge mean just what is in employees’ memories, or should employees be required to look through their files? If employees are required to look through files, should they also be required to look through other documentation, such as public records and other resources? For these reasons, it is critical that the concept of knowledge be defined so that the seller knows what they have to do to satisfy the representation, and both parties know how the risk is to be allocated.

What if the seller wants to allocate the risk of an item back to the buyer? When a seller makes a representation that he or she knows may not be entirely correct, the seller will disclose an “exception.” The seller provides this disclosure in a schedule commonly attached to acquisition agreements, known as a “disclosure schedule,” or a “schedule of exceptions.” Unless the agreement specifies otherwise, a buyer cannot recover for damages for an item that has been disclosed.

Going back to our sales tax example, if the seller knew there was a problem, the seller would describe the problem in a disclosure schedule. The seller would say something like “Seller underpaid its sales tax liability for the periods 2008 through 2010, which liability seller believes to be between $50,000 and $75,000.” The buyer could not thereafter bring a claim for reimbursement for the later assessed tax liability as a result of the seller’s disclosed exception.

As I mentioned above, representations and warranties, and their accompanying disclosures, are heavily negotiated. One point of contention is whether the risk of an item, even when disclosed, should be allocated to the buyer. Buyers with sufficient leverage will force the seller to remove the disclosed item, or affirmatively accept the risk associated with the item. Another point of contention is what the concept of knowledge means, and whether knowledge can qualify a particular representation. For these reasons, it is critical to spend a lot of time understanding the representations and warranties of any acquisition agreement so that you can understand the risks that may exist for you in a deal.

Selling Your Business – It Takes a Team

January 6, 2011 | Structure Law Group, LLP

Any large business transaction, particularly a merger or acquisition, requires a well-coordinated team for success. Assembling your team early on makes a large difference between success and failure, whether you are in San Jose, California or Sydney, Australia.

The most critical advisors are your attorney and your accountant. If you are a business owner and you don’t have an attorney or an accountant advising your company, you need to get one now. Although either professional can “parachute in” to assist your company in the event of a sale, their advice to you will be much more efficient and effective if they have direct and long term experience with your company. Failing to have ongoing advice in legal, tax, and financial matters will likely result in the need for remedial work and higher expense in closing a business sale.

Finding a suitable attorney will likely be your first task in assembling your business team. As with any advisor, you should use your referral network to find a professional that is appropriate to your business. You should only choose someone who you believe can act as a trusted, strategic advisor in planning, growing, and selling your business, rather than someone who can merely produce documents. An attorney who you allow to attend your board and/or shareholder meetings and generally become familiar with your business will be able to advise you on building the proper foundation for an ultimate sale of your business. He or she will also be able to tailor their advice to the realities of your business and your own risk preferences.

Mergers and Acquisitions – The Importance of Good Company Records, Part 2

December 30, 2010 | Structure Law Group, LLP

What should you do to get your company documentation ready for a potential merger or acquisition? Consult your lawyer. First, he or she will assist the company in getting its basic corporate minute book updated. Important transactions, such as those involving company stock or stock options, appointment or election of directors and officers, and substantial transactions should all be properly documented. The company’s stock book and capitalization table should be reviewed for accuracy, particularly if there are multiple owners. If the company has gone through equity financings or debt financings, closing binders containing the material documents in each of these transactions will need to be made available.

Second, your lawyer should review existing documentation for legal traps. The minefield that poorly prepared documentation presents is extensive, but a few examples can help illustrate the problem. Companies early on may not be able to afford employees, so they will use independent contractors to help create their basic technology. If the company does not have a signed agreement from the non-employee inventor assigning all rights to the company, the inventor, not the company, owns the technology. If the same company has licensed its technology under a purchase order that provides for a transfer of title, then the company now may not own its own technology because it just transferred to the customer title to its technology. Of course, because it didn’t get an assignment from the inventor in the first place, it may not have been legally able to transfer the technology to the customer, so the company may now be in breach. Situations like this do not typically advance closing dates.

Another legal trap exists in confidentiality terms, common to many contracts. These provisions prevent you from disclosing important information you receive from the other party. Often, this information includes the contract itself. As a result, you’ll need to get permission from the other party to disclose the contract. When you ask the other party to disclose, they will want to know who the recipient will be. At that point, you’ll need to disclose the name of the acquirer, and likely the fact that your company is being sold. The fact that you are being sold may not make the other party to your contract very happy. All of this requires you to make sure you know where you are under confidentiality, and to have a strategy where the disclosure requires delicate handling.

Mergers and Acquisitions – The Importance of Good Company Records, Part 1

December 27, 2010 | Structure Law Group, LLP

Even in the San Francisco Bay Area, buying a business is like buying a house. You wouldn’t do it without performing due diligence and a good inspection. Unlike a house, however, strengths and challenges in a business lie in its relationships, and not necessarily in its building. For this reason, buyers will spend a significant amount of time in reviewing a company’s documentation before any merger or acquisition.

A buyer reviews documentation for a number of reasons. Many are business-oriented, such as whether the company has good title to its technology, has solid supply and strategic relationships, and has not overextended itself in promises made to customers or employees.

The fastest way for the sale of your company to implode is for you to be unable to deliver a complete record of your company to a buyer. It is typical for a company hoping to sell itself to make available online their corporate documentation promptly after a letter of intent is signed. The longer it takes to make this documentation available, the longer it will take to close the sale. A long sale process is almost never to the seller’s advantage. Worse, not having information readily available creates a perception that the company is disorganized. This will increase the perceived risk to the buyer and will further lengthen the time to close.

Sale of a Business: Jump the GAAP

December 23, 2010 | Structure Law Group, LLP

Even in the reality-distorted vortex of Silicon Valley, a company’s financial statements are a critical tool in any merger or acquisition. If you are a venture-backed company, or have substantial bank loans requiring annual audits, your company’s financial statements may already be in relatively good shape. If you are an owner-operator, or have otherwise been relying on a tax-oriented approach to your financials, you’ll need to convert your financial statements to the standards commonly used by accountants.

Generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, is the method used by the accounting profession to create financial statements. If you are trying to sell your company, you will need to have GAAP financial statements to be able to attract the best buyers, and to be sure you are getting the best value. Because GAAP is so widely used and, in many cases, mandatory, failing to provide a buyer with GAAP financials will increase the perceived risk with respect to buying your company, thereby lowering the price.

An acquirer will likely require that you submit GAAP financials. As part of your agreement with the acquirer, you will represent that your company’s financials are compliant with GAAP. If you are wrong and the buyer is damaged as a result, the agreement will provide that you will have to compensate the buyer, usually through a reduction of the purchase price.

Because converting to GAAP financials is not an easy process, you need to get started as early as possible. In some businesses, such as those technology start-up companies, the conversion to GAAP could take years rather than months. Complications may arise, particularly in the revenue recognition area, and prior year financials may need to be restated. This could be disastrous if, in the middle of negotiations, adherence to GAAP eliminates the year-over-year profit increases you hoped to show.

Mergers and Acquisitions: Start Now or Forever Hold Your Company

December 20, 2010 | Structure Law Group, LLP

Your company, like many companies in Silicon Valley, may suddenly find itself faced with a market window to sell and provide a liquid return for its owners. If you are an entrepreneur or other business owner, you are always on the lookout to reap the value of your business. Before you start planning the next phase of your life, however, you need to plan carefully how you will sell your company.

A company sale is typically a multi-year process, and the sooner you begin the better off you will be when a deal finally arrives. Although exceptions exist, particularly in the roulette world of high technology start-ups, a good rule of thumb is that it will take you between two to four years to sell an operating company. You should plan to begin the process no later than three years before you plan to close. Preferably you should start when you form the company.

Why so early? If you are an owner-operator, you will need to change your focus from maximizing the amount of cash and other compensation you generate from your company, to improving business valuation. A simple mathematical example drives home the point. Many companies are sold on a multiple based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (often referred to as “EBITDA”). If your business can be sold for five times EBITDA, that extra dollar in compensation will cost you five dollars in sale price.