How to Acquire a Company for Free

The ultimate recent example being Chrysler, in which Fiat got a 20% (later rising to 35% and beyond) stake for "free". (They're sharing IP, etc.) http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13610819

tjmc• 17 years ago

Aquiring a company that's losing money is hardly "free". After Nick Leeson's rogue trading spree, ING bought Barings for £1, but they then inherited a good chunk of its liabilities.

The author's advice is trite. Who would ever go knocking door to door at a business park looking for failing businesses? It often makes sense to aquire businesses in a field in which you're already established, but doing it essentially at random? That's just stupid.

It's also bad advice because it's pitched at a general audience, but it's really a specialist field for people who know how to cut costs and turn around a business (during a major recession btw). It's the business equivalent of learning to surf on a 20' break - astonishing if you pull it off, far more likely to end in tragedy.

jteo• 17 years ago

Some people are more inclined from a "fix-her-up" perspective, ie. people who know how to turn around a business, but may not have had the idea to start one.

sireat• 17 years ago

In Europe there are places where you can pick up a castle/mansion for a 1 Euro. The catch? You are obliged to do restoration and upkeep, which can run well into millions.

netsp• 17 years ago

Ownership of heritage buildings in much of Europe can hardly be called ownership.

terpua• 17 years ago

I would go so far to say that the HN community/startups are already "acquiring companies for free" all the time - open source software.

It's a ready-to-go free asset without which I wouldn't be able to bootstrap my startup.

Of course, we don't own the "asset" and as such, the distinction.

edw519• 17 years ago

"How can you find a free company to take over? Check out business brokers on the web, Craigslist, and the classified ads in your local newspaper and any trade journals."

Only if you want the leftovers that the insiders have passed over. OP is in a time warp. Anything worth acquiring gets acquired long before in reaches the advertising stage. You'll need a network to find these.

HeyLaughingBoy• 17 years ago

Depends on the size of the company. I have a friend (an EE with an MBA) who paid $20k for a tiny sensor manufacturing business that he turned around and sold for about $200k two years later. Got that through a broker.

My wife used to have a small housecleaning business that she had to abandon after she became very ill. Had we thought of it at the time, the customer list would have been valuable to someone looking to startup. For less than $1,000 in equipment + the cost of the list, they could have walked into an immediately cash-flowing business. Actually, I'm surprised none of her employess thought about doing that.

None of these are free, but they're cheap enough that they may as well be.

binarray2000• 17 years ago

Fellow entrepreneurs, let's get back to the meat of his blog post which is in the third paragraph.

One sentence from that paragraph "If you cannot bring fresh ideas, energy, and skill to a business--any business--then it will not succeed." perfectly describes what makes or breaks every entrepreneur (and her/his business). He probably reminded a few people who have "fresh ideas, energy, and skill" that there is another path to being an entrepreneur (taking over a company).

And it's the path taken by quite a few people. Warren Buffett (according to Wikipedia, Berkshire Hathaway - a textile manufacturing company - was in trouble before Buffett) comes to mind. Another example (especially for the last sentence: "Don’t worry about what the business does in terms of revenue right now; look at it as a start--a platform that over time can be morphed into what ever you want.") is Martin Sorrell (WPP, the largest advertising network was, prior to Sorrell, "Wire and Plastic Products plc" and made wire shopping baskets).

PS - Kudos to the OP, great blog that I didn't know of even though I visit and read inc.com quite often.

pchristensen• 17 years ago

If you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have noticed that it was written by Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese. The guy who once had Steve Jobs working on an assembly line wiring up arcade games. Double kudos to you for making me do the double-take.

joezydeco• 17 years ago

Considering Nolan has managed to tank a number of startups over his lifetime post-Atari, I'm guessing he has experience from the other end. Anyone still holding uWink stock out there?

How to Acquire a Company for Free

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