Oasis- largely considered the nation's largest PEO, recently completed the acquisitions of Professional Employer Plans, Inc. and Advantage Employer Solutions, Inc. The company made the announcement on January 14.

Fresh on the heels of its Phillips Temps acquisition, Barrett Business Service, Inc (BBSI) has announced the acquisition of First Employment Services in Arizona. BBSI expects the transaction to be accretive to earnings during the fist year.

In like a lion, out like a lamb

Although 2007 started off with a bang, the final months saw several mega-deals implode and a teetering of financing for those deals. The number of transactions reported certainly showed signs of slackening during the 4th quarter. According to SDC, middle market deals (ie $50 million to $500 million in transaction value) fell off about 4% percent year over year.

In the state of nature profit is the measure of right. -Thomas Hobbes, 1679

Indeed, profit is the key to many things, none more so than in measuring the value of your business in a transaction. To that end, the key to running a business prior to a transaction is to manage for profit. After all, your investor is going to be taking stock of that profit when it comes time for valuation.

Below we'll take a look at a few key items that can influence your profitability and discuss how you should consider handling them.

Wholesale and Distribution companies are very popular with buyers, especially if your company generates strong stable profits. When it comes to selling a distribution company, there are 5 key points that business owners should remember.

Profits Dictate Sale Price
The only reason for some one to purchase a business is because they are purchasing the ability to make money. When pricing a business, a buyer is always, in one manner or another, seeking to price the value of that profit stream.

Most M&A Advisors can attest to the logistical nightmare that can arise in scheduling the required (and finite) resources amongst multiple buyers during due diligence. Imagine 15 potential buyers descending upon your company at one time, all seeking to rifle through papers and boxes of documents in order to complete their due diligence. And the alternative? Scheduling each independently, thus spreading them out over the course of several months and losing momentum in your deal. This is clearly a nightmare scenario – yet it is the most likely scenario if you plan on completing due diligence on-site without a virtual deal room.

As dealmakers predicted, 2007 finishes on a strong note for M&A, with the middle market keeping up the pace of transactions. More.

In a sign that much in the logistics world is driven by China, YRC announced today that it had entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Shanghai Jiayu Logistics Co, Ltd.

Here is a scenario that we often encounter:  the phenomenally successful business that looks absolutely scary when you walk in the building.  Yes, buying a business is based fundamentally on the financial performance of the business.  But how does someone get themselves comfortable with the accuracy of the financials? 

I can say from experience that the image that a business portrays - and specifically, their physical image - goes a long way towards making a buyer feel comfortable with the business.

We often hear buyers inquire about the protections offered by a non-compete agreement. The issue that concerns them, of course, is "what prevents the buyer from going out and starting the same business across the street from me?" And it is a good point: in many small businesses, the vast majority of value is not in assets, but rather in intangibles such as the customers, location, etc.

There are a number of constructs that can help you protect your interests in the business you are buying, but they all center around a well structured non-compete agreement.

Issues to Address in a Non-Compete:
Geographic Reach of Non-Compete. To be effective, a non-compete agreement should address the geographic reach it is to encompass. For many small business transactions, a range of 100 miles is sufficient. For single-branch retail operations, an even smaller range might be appropriate- perhaps as little as 25 miles. For companies that have a wider territory, the exclusion might be the entire country.