Fusion Recruiting
Mergers and acquisitions are continuing to play a huge role in today’s AEC industry. Small firms have always been a target for bigger companies. Whether the interest is to monopolize a market, add a service or add strength and clients we have all witnessed firms being absorbed. In many cases the only way to stay in business is to agree to this type of arrangement. Today not only are we seeing more mergers of "equals" but the largest two hundred firms are also now targets as the top ten compete for supreme dominance.
My name is Derek Behning and as you have undoubtedly figured out I am the founder of Fusion Recruiting. I have been a part of the merger and acquisition market for two years. This seems like a short period of time but when you speak to forty presidents and CEO’s a week you cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. My parallel recruiting world made this possible. Hundreds of companies have expressed their interest in being bought, merging or buying a competitor to me in the past two years. I have created a shopping list for every firm I have engaged. Interestingly some firms are open to the idea of buying and selling.
I offer two core services which in many ways coincide with and are quite similar to recruiting. These services are confidential in nature and highly volatile and ultimately require a deep understanding of the companies and industry beyond the pure M&A experience including deal structuring, due diligence gathering, and succession planning. I represent buyers in their search to find companies who meet their growth interests. I also represent sellers as they look to leverage their history, people and clients in order to partner with another firm willing to effectively pay leaders from the selling firm to retire or take on a new challenge in their life. These two services are typically quite different in nature yet are uniquely similar.
The difficulties that present themselves today are much different than that of five years ago. Firms are dying off, clients are holding their cards close to their chest and everyone is competing for public projects where they turned those projects away for years. Sellers have to disclose so much only to be embarrassed by the offer they receive…if they see one at all. Buyers are unwilling to make bad decisions in spite of the fact they are eager to move while they have an active audience. This is a perfect storm for many companies and considering who they would prefer to work for or putting a value on their life’s work is not the topic dominating the board room today. Sellers who were looking to sell by 2010 stopped looking at possible buyers in late 08 because the profits were dwindling so rapidly they would have been giving away the farm had they sold. I am bridging these gaps daily whenever possible.
I have encountered many firms that at one time or another spoke to a brokerage about their possible sale. We are not a brokerage. We do not list your firm. All contact with other firms is done privately and only after a non disclosure has been signed for your protection. We do as much preliminary ellimination as possible to get to that point. We also make sure they cannot figure out which firm we are working with.
I have represented several 20-100 man firms as they sought to be acquired. I have also represented large multi-nationals as they look to acquire companies. I have personally been a part of selling two companies in the past twelve months and have been retained to sell several others. Please call me to discuss my services at 612-423-0831 or email at Derek.behning@fusion-recruiting.com.
My name is Derek Behning and as you have undoubtedly figured out I am the founder of Fusion Recruiting. I have been a part of the merger and acquisition market for two years. This seems like a short period of time but when you speak to forty presidents and CEO’s a week you cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. My parallel recruiting world made this possible. Hundreds of companies have expressed their interest in being bought, merging or buying a competitor to me in the past two years. I have created a shopping list for every firm I have engaged. Interestingly some firms are open to the idea of buying and selling.
I offer two core services which in many ways coincide with and are quite similar to recruiting. These services are confidential in nature and highly volatile and ultimately require a deep understanding of the companies and industry beyond the pure M&A experience including deal structuring, due diligence gathering, and succession planning. I represent buyers in their search to find companies who meet their growth interests. I also represent sellers as they look to leverage their history, people and clients in order to partner with another firm willing to effectively pay leaders from the selling firm to retire or take on a new challenge in their life. These two services are typically quite different in nature yet are uniquely similar.
The difficulties that present themselves today are much different than that of five years ago. Firms are dying off, clients are holding their cards close to their chest and everyone is competing for public projects where they turned those projects away for years. Sellers have to disclose so much only to be embarrassed by the offer they receive…if they see one at all. Buyers are unwilling to make bad decisions in spite of the fact they are eager to move while they have an active audience. This is a perfect storm for many companies and considering who they would prefer to work for or putting a value on their life’s work is not the topic dominating the board room today. Sellers who were looking to sell by 2010 stopped looking at possible buyers in late 08 because the profits were dwindling so rapidly they would have been giving away the farm had they sold. I am bridging these gaps daily whenever possible.
I have encountered many firms that at one time or another spoke to a brokerage about their possible sale. We are not a brokerage. We do not list your firm. All contact with other firms is done privately and only after a non disclosure has been signed for your protection. We do as much preliminary ellimination as possible to get to that point. We also make sure they cannot figure out which firm we are working with.
I have represented several 20-100 man firms as they sought to be acquired. I have also represented large multi-nationals as they look to acquire companies. I have personally been a part of selling two companies in the past twelve months and have been retained to sell several others. Please call me to discuss my services at 612-423-0831 or email at Derek.behning@fusion-recruiting.com.