Jan 29
adminAcquisition, Legal communicaitons, M&A, Timeline
In general, the same team that runs a merger, acquisition, divestiture, or strategic investment, should also be the point person for the communications plan. Marketing or corporate communications often wants to take this part and run with it, but it is critical that a person that is familiar with nuances of the “deal” take the lead, with Marketing and Communications (MarCom) heavily involved.
For example, any press releases, customer communications, employee communications, etc., need to reflect not only the confidentiality requirements of the deal (or the mandatory disclosures), but also the “spirit of the deal”. MarCom will provide the majority of the content of the communications but must be reviewed by the deal lead for consistency with deal terms and the TIMING. The importance of timing can not be overstated, since if handle poorly it can put the companies at legal risk, not to mention, a bad position for rumors, morale, customer satisfaction, etc.
Jan 26
adminLegal, Personal Finance Contingent Fee Agreement, No Win No Fee Compensation, personal injury claim, Rule of Thumb
A general rule of thumb for a contingent fee agreement is that for a personal injury claim case it will take 9-12 months to reach agreement on compensation.
Jan 24
adminLegal, Personal Finance buy sturctured settlements, cash payout structured settlement, lump sum value, selling structured settlements
The general rule of thumb for the lump sum value of a structured settlement is approximately 50% or less of the total value of the settlement payments. For example, if you have a settlement worth $1 million spread out over 10 years, if you were to sell the structured settlement you could expect to receive $500,000 due to the discounting due to the time value of money (obviously, this holds true if you intended to buy structured settlements).
Jan 21
adminPersonal Finance cash payout on structured settlement, Personal Finance
Cash payout on structured settlements can be established to provide the claimant with a lump sum as opposed to income for life. For an annuity, in calculating benefits per settlement dollar, the general rule of thumb is: the longer one’s life expectancy, the smaller the payment – and the shorter one’s life expectancy, the larger the payment.
Jan 13
adminStartup, Venture Capital equity, ownership, Rule of Thumb, stock options
A rule of thumb for startups is to set aside a pool of stock options that equates to 10% of the company following its first round of funding. This employee stock option plan will be used as compensation for future employees, that is, employees beyond the founding team.
Jan 13
adminPersonal Finance auto insurance, auto insurance quote, Insurance, Rule of Thumb, Savings
As a rule of thumb, you should estimate that you can reduce your auto insurance by 10-15% by combining your automobile insurance with the same carrier as your homeowners or renters insurance. This discount could be applied to your auto insurance or you homeowners insurance. For example, I received a 10% discount on my homeowners insurance because I had my auto insurance with the same insurance provider.
It’s important to note that despite this discount, you should still shop around to get homeowners and auto insurance quotes from separate providers. I did this and was able to save over $500 per year even after having my homeowners increase because I was no longer getting the discount.
Jan 12
adminUncategorized business school, MBA
In general, the decision to pursue your Masters in Business Administration via an Executive MBA or an Online MBA program can be boiled down to the following pros and cons:
Executive MBA Pros:
- Build a stronger network. Typically, an executive MBA will have much more face-to-face time than an online program, thus you will build stronger relationships with your classmates and professors.
- Reputation. While online programs have gained a lot of ground, executive MBA programs still have an advantage.
- Compensation/Salary. Given the two above points, graduates of executive MBA programs typically earn more than grads of online programs.
Executive MBA Cons:
- Network is local. While you may have a stronger network, it is typically heavily concentrated by the school or university.
- Cost. Executive MBA programs are targeted at executives that are having their tuition paid for by their employer and are thus very expensive (the Berkeley Columbia executive business school program can cost over $120,000)
- Workload. The workload of these programs is typically more intensive than online programs.
The bottom-line and deciding factor for most should hinge on the reputation of the school. As a general rule of thumb, you should attend the program of the school with the best ranking/reputation regardless of whether it is online or executive.
Jan 07
adminAcquisition, Valuation Acquisition, Valuation
Negotiations of acquisition valuations for a technology or software company typically center on what “comparabables” or “comps” should be used. Valuations typically are arrived at by “triangulating” on a range of valuations determined via different methods. These methods typically include DCF (discounted cash flows) with terminal values calculated as a revenue multiple, EBITDA multiple, Earnings multiple, and/or perpetual growth (perpetuity).
The comparables are used to determine the appropriate multiples to use on Revenue, EBITDA, and earnings as well as the appropriate discount rate to use for the DCF. There are various comparables to be considered: “trading” (what are comparable companies valued at in the public markets) and “Acquisition” (what valuations have comparable companies been acquired).
Obviously, there are many other considerations that go into valuation (capital invested, cash position, desperation of buyer/seller, etc.) but comparables analysis is a good rule of thumb for valuations.