Selling to a Publicly Traded Company
“Tony Falkenstein is the founder of Just Life Group, a water cooler business. Since inception he has acquired six companies and shares what he looks for when buying a business,” shares Sam Thompson a Minneapolis business broker and the president of M&A firm Transitions In Business. “He discusses what sellers can do to impress him. He also discusses how to negotiate the best multiple.”
In 1988, Tony Falkenstein started Just Life Group, one of the first water-cooler companies in New Zealand.
In 2016, Falkenstein identified the need to diversify into new service offerings and opted to start acquiring companies under Just Life Group, a publicly traded company with a current market cap of $46.8M as of June 9, 2022.
Since then, Falkenstein has acquired six businesses, aligning with their overall focus of enhancing lives through healthy living and homes.
In this episode, Falkenstein shares how he thinks about acquiring companies. Take a listen to learn how to:
- Attract an acquirer without approaching them directly.
- Negotiate the highest multiple for your company.
- Impress an acquirer the first time you meet them with one simple trick.
- Leverage financial modeling to convince an acquirer to pay a higher multiple.
- Create a bidding war for your company.