Strategic Buyers Go to ‘School’ on Financial Buyers published in The Corporate Counselor, features LP’s 2011 Dealmakers Summit

In August, The Corporate Counselor published an article entitled, "Strategic Buyers Go to ‘School’ on Financial Buyers." The article featured Levenfeld Pearlstein and FuelBreak Capital Partners' annual Dealmakers Summit as the scene of lively discussion on hot-button topics currently facing equity investors, advisers, and their bankers.

From the article:

A lively debate raged throughout the Summit on the question of whether private equity investors would be outstripped by cash-rich, and increasingly savvy, strategic buyers. Related questions — such as why financial buyers continue to have success compared with strategics (after all, shouldn’t a strategic investor be able to offer the highest and best bid for a competitor?), how private equity investors view the process, and how private investors combat some of the inherent advantages strategics enjoy — were also explored at the Dealmakers’ Summit.

According to Russell Shapiro, head of Levenfeld’s corporate M&A practice, “Experienced management teams consider more than just price when evaluating a prospective sale. Timing and certainty to close are increasingly critical factors. I’m not referring just to financing contingencies here but, rather, I mean other things. Hart-Scott-Rodino and other regulatory hurdles, for example, are far more likely to be issues when dealing with a strategic buyer, at least a large one.”

See the full article here.