Mergers and Acquisitions Source Association Promoting Best Practices

The president of Business Transaction Services, Inc., Linn Crader has owned and operated merger and acquisition firms since 1981. In his capacity, he assists clients to negotiate, achieve and experience a smooth merger and acquisition process, from regulatory compliance wealth retention to tax mitigation. Alongside work, Linn Crader maintains membership with associations such as the Mergers and Acquisitions Source Association.

Established in 1991, the Mergers and Acquisitions Source aims to advance deal-making opportunities in the mergers and acquisition industry, foster the best practices, and promote the career and personal growth of the members. In addition, the association provides career enrichment courses and conferences, such as the Spring Conference and Deal Market event.

The conference, held annually, is open to any interested party in the mergers and acquisitions niche, including non-members. The event schedule features educational sessions, industry keynote speakers, networking, and sub-group-specific deal closing tips and tutorials. Also, the deal-making section is suited for private groups and institutions seeking to invest in contracts valued between $1-$50 million. They network with mergers and acquisition professionals on how to make and seal deals, available opportunities, and acquisition requirements.

Advantages of Working with BTSI

Linn Crader has decades of experience as a leader in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) sector. Based in Lake Oswego, Oregon, Linn Crader serves as president of Business Transition Services, Inc (BTSI). BTSI functions as an M&A firm, emphasizing the development of each client’s growth plans and exit strategies. There are five aspects of service that clients should evaluate when considering BTSI as an M&A partner.

Local Reach
BTSI blends small-business focus with enterprise-level reach. The company has established relationships with buyers and investors around the world. While clients benefit from these partnerships, BTSI only represents business owners in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia. This geographical focus allows ownership to provide direct, face-to-face support as often as possible.

Holistic Approach
Clients enjoy the BTSI Holistic 5-Discipline Team Approach. Created by an all-star team of advisors, this approach is another tool that provides clients with a comprehensive set of large-firm resources without sacrificing a personalized experience.

Personalized Approach
Larger firms may subject client transitions to “on-the-clock” status. BTSI, on the other hand, understands the value of patience and refrains from implementing one-size-fits-all solutions. This personalized approach enhances the likelihood of a client achieving their personal and corporate goals.

Zero Net Cost Transition Goal
BTSI prioritizes each client’s financial standing above the company’s. What is best for the client is always the course of action that BTSI chooses. With this in mind, the company consistently seeks to achieve a net cost of $0 for all transition services provided.

No Commission-Based Products
BTSI does not recommend any commission-based product, such as insurance, as an estate planning tool. These products represent additional revenue for M&A firms, despite not always serving a client’s needs. Instead, BTSI will suggest any non-commissioned wealth management tool that has the potential to optimize a client’s experience.

Role of Due Diligence in M&A Transactions

The president of Business Transition Services, Linn Crader is a longtime mergers and acquisitions expert whose professional experience spans over four decades. Linn Crader specializes in an integrated five-discipline model that includes mergers and acquisition, accounting, law, tax migration, and wealth retention. A primary focus in an M&A is conducting due diligence.

Due diligence entails verifying, investigating, and auditing an investment deal to find all the relevant facts about a transaction. This process allows a buyer to find out crucial information about a seller before making an informed decision and closing the deal. Due diligence includes scrutinizing finances, contracts, and customers. Due to the complexity associated with mergers and acquisitions, due diligence can take numerous weeks or months to complete and typically begins after the signing of a letter of intent.

Teams involved in due diligence comprise legal, financial experts, and consultants with experience in M&As. From a buyer’s perspective, due diligence allows them peace of mind knowing all the information in a transaction is accurate and correct. On the other hand, from a seller’s perspective, due diligence, especially scrutinizing finances, reveals the seller’s company’s fair market value, which could be higher than initially thought. For this reason, sellers also prepare their due diligence reports before transactions commence.

Fellow of the IBBA Recognizing Outstanding Members

With over four decades of experience, Linn Crader serves as president of Business Transition Services, engaging in numerous successful M&A transactions. To complement his professional duties, Linn Crader maintains membership with the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA).

The International Business Brokers Association brings together business intermediary specialists/business brokers from around the globe to succeed in their profession. Given the important advisory role that business brokers have in transactions, the IBBA recognizes outstanding talent through awards such as the Fellow of the IBBA.

The Fellow of the IBBA award celebrates IBBA members who have been loyal and contributed a lot to the association. A lifetime award, it’s given to members with a Certified Business Intermediary designation and has met or exceeded the set criteria.

To receive this award, nominees should be IBBA members for ten years or longer and make key contributions to the association by serving in various capacities such as director, instructor, or presenter at a conference, committee member, or participating in any other association activities. Members who dedicate their time and energy to serve the association for the benefit of other members are given priority.

An Overview of M&A Source Master Certifications

An accomplished merger and acquisition professional, Linn Crader serves as president of Business Transition Services. With hundreds of M&A transactions to his name, Linn Crader maintains membership with the M&A Source.

The M&A Source aims to help M&A professionals adopt the best practices through content and strategic education to serve their clients better. For M&A to achieve its goals of advancing professional standards, the M&A Source Merger & Acquisition Master Certifications help M&A professionals improve their professional outlook. Attaining a certification demonstrates commitment towards the M&A profession and M&A Source.

There are two types of M&A Source Master Certifications which are Merger & Acquisition Master Intermediary (M&AMI) and Merger & Acquisition Master Finance (M&AMFin). M&AMI focuses on the primary intermediary deal-making process and managing the process. On the other hand, M&AMFin focuses on the relationship manager/direct lender who takes part in the M&A acquisition financing process and manages the entire financing process.

To qualify for the Initial Certification, applicants are required to be M&A Source members, have proven three years of full-time experience as an M&A deal marker within the last ten years, submit transactions of an equivalent or more than $1.5 million, and have attended 2 M&A Source conferences among others.

Each M&AMI and M&AMFin are required to recertify their Master’s designation three years after the award and, after that, apply for recertification after every three years. Other recertification requirements include active M&A Source, or IBBA membership, payment of an annual maintenance fee, and have 16 credits attained from attending a minimum of one M&A Source conference.

How Companies Are Valued in Mergers and Acquisitions

Linn Crader, a well-versed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) professional, has a proven track record in M&A work that spans nearly 40 years. The president of Business Transition Services Inc. (BTSI), Linn Crader works out of the firm’s Lake Oswego, Oregon offices. BTSI manages the different elements of M&A on behalf of its clients, such as performing business analyses and creating strategic plans, which includes making market valuations.

A market valuation is important to both the seller and buyer in an M&A transaction. The price the buyer pays should reflect the value of the target company. Hence, a realistic valuation is necessary to make the M&A transaction favorable for both the seller and the buyer. There are two principal methods of valuation in M&A, the balance sheet-based method and the income statement and market-based method.

In the balance sheet-based method, the value of the target company is determined by measuring the value of its assets. One way is by computing the target company’s book value by deducting the total liabilities from the total assets. Another way of calculating the value of assets is by considering the cost of replacing those assets – a method known as replacement-cost value.

The income statement and market-based method, on the other hand, considers the income statement values as well as market data. One of the most commonly used valuation schemes under this method is the earnings-to-price ratio, which measures the earnings per share in relation to the market price of the shares. Another approach is the price-to-sales ratio, which compares the market price of the shares with the company’s revenues.

Looking Back at VWR’s Acquisition of HPC

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) expert Linn Crader serves as the president of Business Transition Services Inc., a boutique M&A firm that creates and executes growth plans and exit strategies on behalf of clients. In prior years, Linn Crader served the M&A industry through Crader & Associates Inc. where he served as president. One of the earliest transactions of Crader & Associates was VWR Scientific Products’ acquisition of HPC Scientific & Technology in 1998.

The acquisition almost guaranteed VWR’s rapid growth in terms of fulfilling the high tech industry’s demands for specialized products and services. At that time, HPC was one of the leading suppliers of such products and services in Oregon and in eight other states. HPC was supplying chemicals and laboratory supplies to more than 1,400 clients in various industries such as manufacturing, food processing, water treatment, mining, quality assurance labs, and forest products.

HPC’s net assets were valued at $4.3 million as of March 1997, while its revenues were estimated at $18 million for 1997. After the acquisition, HPC became a wholly-owned subsidiary of VWR.

In this transaction, Crader & Associates acted as an advisor for HPC.

Code of Professional Responsibility for Mergers and Acquisitions Pros

With nearly 40 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, Linn Crader oversees successful business transactions as president of Business Transaction Services, Inc., with five offices on the coast, including Newport Beach CA, Santa Monica CA, Los Angeles, Bellevue WA and Lake Oswego OR, . Linn Crader advocates for a more ethical, professional mergers and acquisition industry by leading continuing education. He also is as a member of M&A Source, an organization for professionals in the mergers and acquisitions field that sets forth a code of professional responsibility for its members.

Established in 1991, M&A Source invites those in the industry to participate in continuing education programs and pursue professional certifications. Additionally, the group offers resources to members in order to help them better serve clients who are selling or acquiring businesses, companies, or other middle-market assets. To this aim, the group encourages its members and all mergers and acquisitions professionals to follow a Code of Professional Responsibility.

The code seeks to hold mergers and acquisitions advisors to a set of principles, such as staying current on the latest trends in the business as well as working to protect clients and others against fraud or other unethical practices. The organization stipulates that in cases where the code deviates from laws pertaining to the industry, professionals must adhere to the rule of law. The code means to lead advisors toward providing both buyers and sellers with honest, ethical, effective assistance in navigating mergers and acquisitions.

Tree Top, Inc. Continues to Develop and Sell High-Quality Apple Juice

With nearly four decades of experience owning and operating mergers and acquisitions firms, Linn Crader leads operations for his own company, Business Transaction Services, Inc., on the west coast. In his capacity as a mergers and acquisitions professional, Linn Crader has navigated clients through the process of business transactions, including a deal where Watermill Foods, Inc. was acquired by Tree Top, Inc., a cooperative of apple growers based in Selah, Washington.

Known for producing high-quality apple juice, Tree Top, Inc., when founder Bill Charbonneau moved his family from California to the Yakima Valley in Washington, purchasing an apple processing plant. Following the company’s inception, Mr. Charbonneau sought to perfect the process of creating apple juice for consumers. Throughout the process, he would taste samples of the juice and insist any batches that did not meet up to his standards be dumped.

Today, Tree Top, Inc. represents a cooperative of apple growers in the state of Washington, producing more than 800 million pounds of apples, pears, and other fruit every year. The product line has expanded to include other types of juice, beverages, and snacks, but the company continues to sell its apple juice in locations around the Western United States of America.

The Certified Business Intermediary Designation

Linn Crader who covers the west coast, served as vice president at mergers and acquisitions firm Finn & West, Inc., before going on to own and operate his own businesses. As president of Business Transaction Services, Inc., Linn Crader manages a limited number of deals and transactions each year to deliver personal attention and high-quality service to clients. In addition, Mr. Crader belongs to professional organizations including the International Business Brokers Association, a nonprofit organization that encourages mergers and acquisitions professionals to develop their skills through education and certification.

Founded in 1984, the International Business Brokers Association welcomes individuals and businesses operating in mergers and acquisitions and business brokering activities. The group delivers continuing education courses to professionals and grants the Certified Business Intermediary designation, signifying experience, education, and commitment to the industry, to those who qualify.

Exclusive to the International Business Brokers Association, the Certified Business Intermediary designation requires experienced business brokers, who can prove they’ve served as a lead seller broker in the three business transactions, to maintain an active standing with the organization while fulfilling a set of requirements. Eligible candidates must complete a Certified Business Intermediary exam application and submit it to the organization’s headquarters.

Three years prior to completing the application, the candidate needs to participate in at least one International Business Brokers Association Conference and attain 68 relevant credit hours. Those credits may be earned by attending courses from the International Business Brokers Association itself or through M&A Source, another professional organization. When candidates complete those courses with a score of 70 percent or higher, they satisfy the requirement. Successful candidates also promise to stand by the organization’s code of ethics, and must pass the Certified Business Intermediary exam before earning certification.