Product Description
Most technology entrepreneurs start companies and spend years of their lives building them with the goal of generating significant wealth through a successful sale. For many, the sale of their company is a one-off event for which they have little or no experience, but whose outcome can make the difference between true financial security and years of frustration and regret. This book gives honest, practical advice for executives and shareholders of technology businesses on how to prepare their businesses and how to manage and optimise the sale process through to a successful completion for maximum value. The author draws on his direct experience from a 20-year career in technology and corporate finance, but also on the experience of others in the industry - notably, corporate finance advisers and lawyers, corporate development professionals working at some of the most acquisitive large technology companies and entrepreneurs who have sold their businesses. After every second chapter, there is a case study of a technology company that has been successfully sold, written from interviews with the key individuals involved. These give real-life experiences from diverse businesses, ranging from a pre-revenue company sold when its product was still in beta to a $100m revenue company sold in its fourteenth year. This is a practical guide that can be followed and consulted to give insight into every part of the sale process and to learn from others who have gone through it many times.
About the Author
Rupert Cook has experienced technology corporate finance from every angle over the last 20 years. He understands intimately the aspirations and tribulations of technology entrepreneurs, having worked tirelessly as one of the founding team to build up an IT Training and Consultancy business from scratch in the late 80s, to a successful sale to a UK PLC eight years later. Since then, he has bought and sold technology businesses both as a principal and for clients around the world. He has run fund-raisings for early stage businesses and also acted on the other side of the fence as a venture capital investor. For five years, Rupert was a Board Director and Head of Advisory Services at Interregnum PLC (now Parkmead Group PLC), a technology merchant bank, and has twice run his own corporate finance boutiques; ICE Consulting, during the "dot-com" years, and more recently Crystal Capital, where he is now Senior Partner. In order to get large technology company experience, Rupert worked at Capgemini for two years, where he was on the board of Capgemini Training and later in Business Development, specialising in EMU services. Whilst at Capgemini, he won a groupwide prize for innovation and became the youngest Senior Manager in the group for his achievements in generating new sales and maximising profits. Rupert has spoken widely at conferences and in the media on the subjects of Economic & Monetary Union and Technology Corporate Finance. He is the author of "Leveraging Competitive Advantage from the Euro", published in 1999 by Financial Times Prentice Hall. He was judged one of the "Top Ten Venture Capitalists under 35 to Watch" at the Investor Allstars Awards in 2003 and was an Advisory Board Member of the UK Technology Partnering and Investment Forum in 2004 and 2005.
