[PrintOwners] Annoucement of new Merger and thanks

[John Gross]

I'm sure that you probably have this deal structured so that you buy the
assets rather than the corporation.  If you were to buy the corporation you
get all liabilities, even those that they might not even be aware of.

John A. Gross
Technigraphics, Inc
Iowa City, Iowa 52240
  techiowa.com


-----Original Message-----
From: printowners-bounces at printweb.org
[mailto:printowners-bounces at printweb.org] On Behalf Of John Henry
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 1:44 PM
To: printowners at printweb.org
Subject: [PrintOwners] Annoucement of new Merger and thanks
Importance: High

***** This is a PrintOwners List Message *****

I have just signed a purchase offer for my largest competitor. They are not
failing but at retirement age. I will talk more about this as things
progress but wanted to take this time to thank a few people on the list.

First the behind the scenes team who have been advising me and I have
bounced things off of. The true value of this list and going to conventions
is the people you become friends with and trust. All but one I have met and
broke bread with (+ lots of empty bottles of wine and beer). I shared all
the numbers with this group and leaned on them for both encouragement and
critical advice.

Dennis Trump, Jace, S, Robin, Gerry and Thom all were my team on this. They
saw the first offers right to the last. I thank them all, they helped me
keep my eye on the ball.

Next I am singling out John Stewart. Before I started this process I got
John's and Larry Hunts book "Print Shop for Sale". I read it cover to cover,
not with this deal in mind but to have an better understanding on what I
needed to know if a deal occurred. It was the best guide I could have found
and I was fortunate it was just out last summer. John Stewart and his book
saved me over $40,000 had I not used his methods to base my offer on. That
and it gave me the confidence to know I was not going into this blind or
getting taken advantage of.

Back up to this October. This got started with an email and phone call from
a business broker. He claimed he had a printing company he was representing
and was asking if I would sign a NDA and he would forward me the
confidential business profile. It turned out be my closest competitor, now
you make ask why they did not call himself? Well they wanted to keep it in
confidence and have help in setting their price marketing it.

In my view if they had called John or bought his book they could have saved
time and money.

They did do their research and had reasonable view about selling. The 2
partners had done very well and this was final part of entering retirement.
Their price was high but not outrageous.

At this time then I brought some of "my team" together. I also made the
decision to hire John on a consultative basis to run the numbers and give
his evaluation.  This was 2 part 1st I was in the I am buying mode and Kathy
was in the absolutely not buying mode. 2nd I wanted to take the emotion out
of the deal as much as I could. If I could not buy it for what John felt the
numbers justified I would not do the deal not matter how bad I wanted it.

The number I felt right off I would pay was around 85% of asking price.
John's numbers came in at less than I thought. So I made my first offer
based on the low range John suggested. They counterd at my original high
range; I was ready bite, but no Kathy and John said it was to high. So I
countered with the max John said.  After a few days they accepted with some
wording and minor structure changes.

John Stewart's advice and his book saved me over $40,000 from what I would
have paid. I happy to say I paid John less than a fraction of that. Money
well spent. For an $89 book and the small fee. I now had a deal that I was
confident in. Not only that but Kathy feels somewhat better<G> 


This still has some hurdles, we need to get bank financing as they did not
want to hold anything. We also will move into their location as they have
far more space over 10,000 square feet compared to our 3500. I have some
equipment to sell as we have duplicate of many things. Things like my 4
color GTOVP, 305 cutter and Baum legend 23 inch 4/4/4 folder. I will let the
list know how it all progress.

The big plus is my commute will now be 1/3 less I now I will only have to
drive 2 miles to work and no more stop light!

To wind it up I would say to anyone doing this slow down, get all the
information you can, get some professional advice and have you friends
looking over your back.

Today I met with the bank and all this will take months to close. When I do
close it will be at least 7-9 months total from the first contact with
sellers.

John M. Henry
Mitchell Printing & Mailing Company
125-129 East First Street
Oswego, New York 13126
(315) 343-3531
(315) 343-3577 Fax
www.mpcny.com
John at mpcny.com

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