Objectives

We have one goal for the M&A Strategies event:

    M&A professionals from Pacific Crest Securities and Morrison & Foerster will lead interactive sessions for members of OpenView’s portfolio companies on the sale of privately-held companies to strategic buyers

Agenda

Day 1 – Tues, 07/12/2011

6:00pm – 9:00pm

Opening Cocktail Reception

Day 2 – Weds, 07/13/2011

8:00am – 8:30am

Continental Breakfast and Networking

8:30am – 9:30am

Surveying the M&A Landscape

Insights into the current M&A market for private technology companies.

9:30am – 11:00am

Positioning your Company to be “Bought, Not Sold”

An interactive discussion for executives on how to ensure an optimal M&A exit. This discussion will cover the partnership strategies, roles for an investment banker and legal counsel, as well as best practices for indirectly or directly marketing an M&A opportunity.

11:00am – 11:30am

M&A Process Responsibilities

Summary review of documents the company needs to prepare and the management team’s responsibilities before, during and after the process. Discuss the role of the investment banker in the transaction.

12:00pm – 1:00pm

Lunch

1:00pm – 3:00pm

Negotiating an LOI

Discuss how company management should handle preliminary M&A discussions. Provide an understanding of the key provisions in an LOI (based on forms from a recent transaction) and their effect on the M&A process.

3:00pm – 5:00pm

Negotiating the Sale of a Venture-Backed Technology Company

Stage an interactive “mock negotiation” and illustrate the “give-and-take” in a contentious negotiation involving a middle-market acquisition of a privately-held company, focusing on some of the more controversial provisions included in the definitive acquisition agreement.

Summaries & Documents

How To Get Acquired Not Sold

Great companies are acquired not sold… Couple that with the fact that the majority of expansion stage software exits these days take the form of acquisitions and not IPOs… Makes the careful planning of an exit strategy a high priority for you (the CEO) and your board.

Understanding Your Exit Options

One of the most important strategic decisions that a start-up company makes is planning its exit, as this is what allows a company and its founders to achieve its end goal… a successful, lucrative and painless market exit.