Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, how long have you been at company?

Have you looked up the PE, how large are their other portfolio companies compared to yours?

A prior commenter question on if this is an add on acquisition for them or not?

How close are you to the owner? I would potentially be talking to them to understand what they are advocating for or what they will be carving out of the purchase price as a bonus for you.

OP here. I've been here for almost 2 decades. The PE firm has investments in all types of companies. The fund that they want to include us in will be an add on to an existing company that's also in the DMV. They are a bigger firm by almost $10M more in revenue.

So it sounds like you are redundant in the combined company, and the larger company executive staff will likely be retained?

No. They said she's a key person.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, how long have you been at company?

Have you looked up the PE, how large are their other portfolio companies compared to yours?

A prior commenter question on if this is an add on acquisition for them or not?

How close are you to the owner? I would potentially be talking to them to understand what they are advocating for or what they will be carving out of the purchase price as a bonus for you.

OP here. I've been here for almost 2 decades. The PE firm has investments in all types of companies. The fund that they want to include us in will be an add on to an existing company that's also in the DMV. They are a bigger firm by almost $10M more in revenue.

So it sounds like you are redundant in the combined company, and the larger company executive staff will likely be retained?

Anonymous wrote:OP, how long have you been at company?

Have you looked up the PE, how large are their other portfolio companies compared to yours?

A prior commenter question on if this is an add on acquisition for them or not?

How close are you to the owner? I would potentially be talking to them to understand what they are advocating for or what they will be carving out of the purchase price as a bonus for you.

OP here. I've been here for almost 2 decades. The PE firm has investments in all types of companies. The fund that they want to include us in will be an add on to an existing company that's also in the DMV. They are a bigger firm by almost $10M more in revenue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. It was a lot of pointed questions about all aspects of the business. Then they took me out for dinner at an expensive steakhouse, several bottles of wine, and after the night was said and done, I was told that they must have done otherwise; the deal wouldn't be done. So while I feel good about it, no numbers were shared as to what a new package would look like. So that's the next step I am assuming - also updated my LI profile just in case I need a plan b....so much anxiety.

Thanks for the update, OP. What does the bolded mean?

OP here. Typo. They said that they must have me on board, otherwise, the deal won't be done.

Could they have just been saying this to gain your confidence?

OP, how long have you been at company?

Have you looked up the PE, how large are their other portfolio companies compared to yours?

A prior commenter question on if this is an add on acquisition for them or not?

How close are you to the owner? I would potentially be talking to them to understand what they are advocating for or what they will be carving out of the purchase price as a bonus for you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. It was a lot of pointed questions about all aspects of the business. Then they took me out for dinner at an expensive steakhouse, several bottles of wine, and after the night was said and done, I was told that they must have done otherwise; the deal wouldn't be done. So while I feel good about it, no numbers were shared as to what a new package would look like. So that's the next step I am assuming - also updated my LI profile just in case I need a plan b....so much anxiety.

Thanks for the update, OP. What does the bolded mean?

OP here. Typo. They said that they must have me on board, otherwise, the deal won't be done.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. It was a lot of pointed questions about all aspects of the business. Then they took me out for dinner at an expensive steakhouse, several bottles of wine, and after the night was said and done, I was told that they must have done otherwise; the deal wouldn't be done. So while I feel good about it, no numbers were shared as to what a new package would look like. So that's the next step I am assuming - also updated my LI profile just in case I need a plan b....so much anxiety.

Thanks for the update, OP. What does the bolded mean?

OP here. It was a lot of pointed questions about all aspects of the business. Then they took me out for dinner at an expensive steakhouse, several bottles of wine, and after the night was said and done, I was told that they must have done otherwise; the deal wouldn't be done. So while I feel good about it, no numbers were shared as to what a new package would look like. So that's the next step I am assuming - also updated my LI profile just in case I need a plan b....so much anxiety.

I had a 5+ hour meeting with the acquiring company at which point my counterpart and to-be replacement said "I guess you are making your plans." Not a surprise and I had something else lined up but what ballz to put it that way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are a "key employee" when a PE firm buys the company, it can potentially be very lucrative for you, if you are willing to stick it out for a few years post-transaction and especially if you are willing to wait it out until the PE firm eventually sells everything. You will probably need to work a lot to prove yourself and it won't be easy, but it could potentially be your last job, if everything works out. On the other hand, if you are not a "key employee", I would probably be looking to exit.

The fact that the PE firm wants to meet with you likely means that they want to interview you to see if you are a "key employee" that they think is needed to move the company forward.

Best of luck.

This

They aren’t going to spend 7 hours to fire you.

I know a director level person that stayed on after a $190 million exit for almost $2 mil and year and equity in the new company.

People should stop fixating on this "7 hour" meeting.

I work for a PE that analyzes purchasing companies of this size all the time. You sign an LOI with the owner after receiving some diligence information, but the real diligence starts after signing the LOI. The next step is for the company to provide you more detailed information, followed by an all-day diligence meeting to ask questions about the information received and go through all aspects of the business. You also expect to meet call it another 2-3 senior management folks that you think may or may not continue with the company after the sale.

Sure, we are seeing if these employees will be retained...but it's not like we handpicked the 2-3 people that will be at this 7 hour meeting. It's just that they are the ones that have now been brought into the discussions because the deal is still a ways from actually closing and everyone gets spooked when you start telling employees you are selling the company.

Guess what, if we aren't real impressed with the senior folks that attend this all-day diligence meeting...then absolutely they may be shown the door. Also, if this is an add-on acquisition, then it's fairly likely these senior people will be shown the door...but we still expect to meet with them for the all-day diligence meeting.

Anonymous wrote:If you are a "key employee" when a PE firm buys the company, it can potentially be very lucrative for you, if you are willing to stick it out for a few years post-transaction and especially if you are willing to wait it out until the PE firm eventually sells everything. You will probably need to work a lot to prove yourself and it won't be easy, but it could potentially be your last job, if everything works out. On the other hand, if you are not a "key employee", I would probably be looking to exit.

The fact that the PE firm wants to meet with you likely means that they want to interview you to see if you are a "key employee" that they think is needed to move the company forward.

Best of luck.

This

They aren’t going to spend 7 hours to fire you.

I know a director level person that stayed on after a $190 million exit for almost $2 mil and year and equity in the new company.

This thread could have been titled: Dining with the Devil.

Be careful OP as PE folks are not your friend.

It’s also typical as senior management to lobby for a transaction bonus since the owner wants you to help sell the company, knowing you may in fact be shown the door once the deal closes.

Anonymous wrote:If you are a "key employee" when a PE firm buys the company, it can potentially be very lucrative for you, if you are willing to stick it out for a few years post-transaction and especially if you are willing to wait it out until the PE firm eventually sells everything. You will probably need to work a lot to prove yourself and it won't be easy, but it could potentially be your last job, if everything works out. On the other hand, if you are not a "key employee", I would probably be looking to exit.

The fact that the PE firm wants to meet with you likely means that they want to interview you to see if you are a "key employee" that they think is needed to move the company forward.

Best of luck.

I’ve been in multiple PE owned companies and the trend is toward making it much harder to get equity and being much less generous toward key employees. Generally the trend is toward giving only founders these agreements to stay until x date for payout.

PE benefits a tiny fraction of people, most involved suffer (employees, customers). Hopefully you are in that tiny cohort.