Insights

Succession planning requires exactly that: a realistic plan for passing leadership and management roles to the next set of leaders.  Business owners may not want to sell the business to an unknown third party and would prefer to monetize their investment via a sale of shares to the next level of management.  At Edgewater, we have worked on several deals where the founders sell out over time to the next level using a customized and highly transparent mechanism to value and sell shares.  On occasion we have identified an issue with the shareholders' agreement that is preventing a smooth transfer and re-worded that particular section of the document (as many years pass it is hard to anticipate every eventuality).