During the heyday of the dot-com corporations – before the bubble burst – IPOs would emerge at a feverish pace.

This simply isn’t the case today. An entire fiscal quarter can go by without a single venture-backed, software IPO offering coming to the market. Back then, this would’ve never been the case. Long after the process of looking for investors has concluded and companies begin to show interest in throwing their hat into the ring, companies start exploring company exit strategies. But the problem is that venture capital firms are more skittish than…

An exit strategy should give you a longterm vision for your business endeavor.

Part of reaching an exit has to do with the exit itself. Where are you aimed? And what sort of trajectory is necessary to reach that point? A large portion of exiting is about having the right business growth strategies and product positioning. These two will allow you to actual reach your exit. But there’s confusion abound when you’re discussing this topic. Greenhorns often don’t know their options. And these include having an IPO, a strategic acquisition, reverse mergers and many…

How do you know when the time is right?

There isn’t a magical light that turns on when it’s time to sell. In order to figure out when the time is right, you need to be intuitive. Generally speaking, when you’re presented with an opportunity to apply your exit strategy, there are going to be positives and negatives. For some, selling is strictly off-limits. And for others, it’s all about the exit. If you’re unsure whether or not you should sell, you’re likely stuck between being entirely fiscally motivated and strictly in it…

Employees are the cogs that keep the machine working. Without them, there is no company. As such, during an acquisition or a merger, the employees quickly become the topic of the conversation once the money changes hands. There are a number of incentives that can be incorporated into a stay package, most of them involving fiscal benefits. Here are a few options: When you have large amounts of unvested founder and employee equity, a portion of that money usually gets re-purposed into stay packages for your staff. When your founders and employees have a large amount of vested equity, the dynamics change.…

An integration plan is a crucial element to the post-M&A process—after all, you’re going to have to live with the results; why not ensure it’s the best possible deal? AVC lists two different ways integration plans work: Your company is mostly left alone Total integration: you can’t see the former company anymore So which is best for your business? Fred at AVC says that consumer-facing web services should largely be left alone, but in the case of infrastructure—like Doubleclick’s ad serving platform—tight integration is best. There’s also the question of what happens…

Selling your company is an exciting, anxious experience—and it can also be very sad. When it comes to mergers and acquisitions, you and your management teams need to focus on the business strategy—and keep emotion out of it. Ben’s Blog has a list of ways to stay logical during a M&A/IPO, including: Get Paid CEOs usually get low salaries. Time to put that to an end. “… once the company … becomes an attractive acquisition target, it makes sense to pay the CEO, so that the decision to keep or sell…

Time for review: do you know the fundamentals of M&As? When it comes to planning your company’s financial strategy, you may need a quick refresher course. But even if you understand the difference between a merger and an acquisition, when it comes to compensation, you may want to rethink your strategy. Fred Wilson gives a rundown of the differences between how the consideration is paid—stock, cash, or other? “Most people think cash is preferable. If you are selling your company, you want to know how much you are getting for it. And…

When it comes to an acquisition, accurately gauging its effectiveness is a challenge because there is no way to predict how things will pan out in the future.

Or is there? Hindsight makes some acquisitions look wholly foolish from the outset. So then, are there factors that would indicate the opposite to be true, when an acquisition looks genuinely tempting? Fortunately, there is a way to grade a business against a uniform scale to get an idea of how much potential for profitability it has. This scale, which weighs in factors…