Confidentiality is a critical issue that influences everything we do in business sales and valuations.
It’s plays out in a number of ways:
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Ensuring staff aren’t unsettled by tales of a pending sale or change of ownership
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Preventing competitors using news of a sale to undermine existing customer relationships
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Maintaining dealings with suppliers, sure of an ongoing stream of orders
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Customers may become unnerved by rumours of a change of ownership, concerned about continuity of supply
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Professional advisors, whilst likely party to the planned sale or valuation, may leak an anticipated sale to other parties in the hope of securing a buyer
Whilst keeping all of these balls in the air, there’s another side to this whole confidentiality issue that warrants some thought:
How can someone buy the business if they don’t know it’s for sale?
Where do you sit on this vexed question?
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