LOSING FAITH

What happens when an investor loses faith in a management team, or a management team gives up on their investor?  In a booming market everyone smiles through the board meetings because money is being made.  In a challenging market like the one we are in now, tempers flare, threats are made, inflammatory emails are irrevocably sent and partnerships are broken.  I have been through this scenario twice in the last few months, once as an investor and once as an M&A advisor.  The solution is very simple.  If the company is making money, you bring in a new CEO who can rationalize the business and quickly tee it up for a sale.   If the company is not a going concern you shut it down immediately.  You don’t hang on and look for a white knight because there are no white knights in this scenario – only vultures who will wait until the corpse is cooling before harvesting the organs, and a management team that hopes the sale will fail so that they will win ownership of the assets by attrition.