We established in lesson #2 that if a business is approached by a potential buyer (Gorilla) that the interest must be qualified and handled efficiently leading to an early indicative offer in writing, based upon the provision of adequate but limited information. We also determined that such a buyer, having knocked on your door is likely to have knocked on quite a few other doors, and is probably running a broader process.

We established in my last blog that selling your business is likely to involve a major mismatch in terms of the scale and size of the likely buyer and that getting in the ring with them by yourself and without a clear strategy might not work out so well.

The shareholders of established private companies in Australia, many of whom will be seeking an exit in the next ten years, ought to be aware of certain realities around deal doing and the market, I am going to unpack some of these over the next series of posts, which I hope people might find helpful.

According to the recent Dealmakers report the global trend in M&A is down, by number of deals -15% and by value -18%. This is driven by the “fears of recession, rising interest rates and geopolitical uncertainties.” There’s always something!

I’m sure everyone has felt it – that gentle squeeze on our purses and wallets. Whether it is at the supermarket or the petrol pump, the café or the corner store, inflation seems to be hitting our hip-pocket nerve once more.

Valuations for tech start-ups have fallen. Why? What does it mean? Five months ago, the market sell-off smashed valuations in the tech. sector. Angel funds felt the brunt of the lower valuations and lower multiples. Many start-ups have lost out.

There's a “burgeoning body of evidence” that social media harms young people’s mental health and continuing to use it unjustifiable. This issue affects us all – what is reasonable usage and how much is too much?

I have been asked this question by owners quite a lot recently. The short answer is not yet, or at least not directly.

There's a “burgeoning body of evidence” that social media harms young people’s mental health and continuing to use it unjustifiable. This issue affects us all – what is reasonable usage and how much is too much?

Emerging sectors are always of interest to us here at Oasis – they highlight trends and themes which sometimes later become mainstream.