Business Merger and Acquisition

Eckhart, Chodash & Strohmeier helps business owners evaluate their options for buying, selling, or merging a business with rigorous, insightful strategies made clear to you. We will recommend the simplest structure for your deal which both meets your objectives and provides a reasonable level of protection from risks. We look for ways to help you save taxes in the transaction — which is important whether you are the seller or the buyer of the business.

Services offered include:

Stock sales
Asset sales
Mergers
Tax-free reorganizations
Earn-outs
Tax planning
Due diligence inquiry

Noncompetition agreements
Employment agreements
Acquisition financing
Leveraged buy-outs
Environmental law
Securities law

Business Merger and Acquisition Client Story

A New York Stock Exchange company made an attractive offer to acquire our client, which had operated a family-held company in the food industry for three generations. After a lot of thought, the shareholders decided it was time to sell. Our objective was to maximize the after-tax gain to our client’s shareholders, while maintaining liquidity. Working with the client’s CEO, we negotiated merger terms, which permitted the client’s shareholders to receive a tax-free exchange of the NYSE company’s stock as payment for their shares. In addition, we recommended that the shareholders receive the right to register their new stock with the Securities and Exchange Commission – at the NYSE company’s cost – to permit them to sell it. Finally, we negotiated employment contracts for the client’s management personnel, securing the additional compensation offered. The deal closed on time and within budget.