Smart Business Magazine, January 2021

January 2021 Smart Business 15 Theres a lot of potential for action in todays M A market according to David Woodburn a shareholder at Roetzel Andress For instance low interest rates and uncertainty over estate and income taxes create an environment in which theres potential for a tremendous amount of action from people looking to transition their closely held business interests to third parties or to family members When you have low interest rates a lot of planning options become available to you Woodburn says When youve got down revenues for a lot of these closely held businesses all of a sudden thats leading to depressed valuation reports And when youve got depressed valuation reports thats the opportune time to be gifting it out and leveraging your estate and gift tax dollars The recent disruption brought on by the pandemic is happening at a time when for many owners the Great Recession is still in the rearview mirror That has some contemplating a sale rather than working to rebuild their businesses through another challenging time For those who have weathered the storm for all these years now I think theyve had enough and theyre saying its time to move out he says But its not just about challenged companies This economic environment has created a great buying opportunity If youre a third party and youre looking to invest in a new business or expand your own its a great time to be trying to purchase somebody else that has had enough Woodburn says And networking and finding those opportunities is really crucial right now While its certainly an M A market with challenges that are affecting deal flow Woodburn says hes not seeing deals fail What youre seeing is people taking their time and many people are a little more willing to work with each other Sellers and buyers are a little more cooperative than I think I have ever seen it If youre a motivated seller the last thing you want is for the buyer to fail because theyre having some issues with the bank or a lender giving them grief because they had a PPP loan or whatever it might be Now youre seeing those parties all working together to try to make the deal happen David Woodburn Great buyer seller cooperation during the disruption Smart Business Dealmakers is a monthly digital newsletter featuring the top business leaders in the Northeast Ohio M A scene Sign up today at www smartbusinessdealmakers com cleveland DEALMAKERS Trends BY ADAM BURROUGHS aburroughs@ sbnonline com Woodburn offered his sense of the deal market what companies can do to prepare for crises in the future and more when he spoke on the Smart Business Dealmakers Podcast To listen to this and other Smart Business podcasts visit www smartbusinessdealmakers com podcast