The term is used for financially stable companies with a good reputation, and who are well established in their industry. A blue-chip company is expected to be non-cyclical and should deliver attractive profits in good as well as in bad times. Typically, the company is among the top three in its industry with a well-respected brand. The term, as such, originates from poker.
Read More »Blue-chip in difficult times?
In the warranty section of a share purchase agreement (SPA), the sellers are required to provide warranties regarding essential circumstances in the company and its operations. The warranties are generally made on the date when the seller and buyer sign the SPA.
If the closing of the transaction (the point in time when the shares change owners) takes place at a later date than the signing date, it is often a hot topic to agree whether the warranties are made on the date of signing only or at signing and also at closing. Notably, in case there is an extended period between signing and closing, it is reasonable to require the seller to renew its warranties at closing.
It should be noted, however, that sellers never should agree to provide forward-looking warranties, i.e., not give warranties relating to events that may happen in the future. Further, sellers’ warranties should be made by each seller individually and severally, and not jointly and severally.
Read More »Sellers’ Warranties
The SHA is an agreement among the largest owners in a company where the parties agree on what rules are to govern important ownership decisions, decisions at meetings of the shareholders and of the board of directors. Customary clauses which regulate joint ownership are clauses which govern business purpose, rights of first refusal, consents, and pre-emptive rights. Among other things, the agreement will regulate:
Read More »The Shareholder Agreement – SHA
We all know Snapchat, the app that displays a picture (snap) taken with a mobile phone. The sender can choose for how long — between 1 and 10 seconds — the receiver can view the image. After the selected time frame, the snap disappears from the recipient’s screen unless he or she had enough time to take a screenshot. Snapchat is popular among young people because the sender has better control of where the picture ends up since it’s difficult to copy the image and share it on other social networks.Read More »Snap’s IPO
In my last blog, “Abdicate from the CEO Position,” I discussed the importance of preparing for the replacement of the CEO in an owner-led business. If you are the principal owner and CEO, you need to understand deeply why a replacement is beneficial for the company and be clear about what you expect from the new CEO.
However, for you, the most important question to answer is, how the change will affect you – personally and professionally. What should you do after you, as the principal owner (perhaps also the founder of the company) resign from the CEO role? What do yo love to do? Playing golf full-time is usually not challenging enough for an entrepreneur. In order to give you sufficient time to prepare for your resignation, you need to determine when the replacement should take place. A decision to resign has to mature, and that takes time.
Read More »What to consider when resigning from the CEO position?
Resigning from the CEO role is a vital decision when you are the principal owner of the company. You must accept the handover to an outsider of not only the control of the business but also your life’s creation and the management of the family fortune. I have, for example, met family business owners, and entrepreneurs, who had their entire lifelong savings in only one share, i.e., in the stock of their company.
To step down from the top position of a business is complicated and will need time for those concerned to process, accept, and enforce. A prerequisite for the successful exchange of the CEO is the understanding, trust, and respect from all parties involved. All shareholders, the board of directors and the top tier management need to be aligned. It is even more challenging when the resigning CEO also is a principal owner and perhaps the founder of the company. It requires rigorous mental, emotional, and practical preparations that take time. It is a life-changing decision, and it’s hard to see all the future implications fully. One of the most important matters is finding out what to do next.
I have, as a venture capitalist and adviser, worked with a large number of privately-owned companies. A typical task for a venture capital investor in an entrepreneurial, owner-led company is to drive the professional and personal development of key people and, in parallel, carry through needed replacements of top tier managers. I will in this blog post share my experiences of the replacement of the CEO in owner-led companies.
In my previous blog post “Recommend to a friend”, I brought up the background to the measurement of customer loyalty with the Net Promoter Score, NPS [2]. The method is easy to use and popular among commercial companies as well as in the public sector. But, all methods based on a relatively simple model has its weaknesses. In this post, I am sharing reflections and some criticism of the NPS approach.
How likely is it that you will recommend a company to a friend or a colleague? That is the question we are asked more and more often after a finished purchase or being in contact with the customer support at a company where we are a customer. But why is this question asked?
Well, the question is at the core of the measurement of customer loyalty using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) [4]. In this blog post I will present the background to the measurement of customer loyalty using the NPS. But all methods based on relatively simple models have obvious weaknesses. In the next post “NPS – some reflections” I will share my reflections and criticism about the NPS method.
Industrifonden (a Swedish industrial development fund) is publishing The Swedish Tech Funding Report twice a year. The report provides insights into the investment activity in one of the world’s most active start-up ecosystems. The first half of 2016 shows an active venture tech market in Sweden, and especially in the Stockholm region. There are attractive companies to invest in as well as venture investors with sufficient funds.
Sweden is right now a good place to be in when investing in venture capital to boost young companies. I have since a couple of years had the privilege of being a member of the board of directors in Industrifonden. The fund invests in young companies with the potential to become global players impacting innovation and the development of Swedish enterprises – in Sweden as well as outside of Sweden. But first and foremost, Industrifonden backs ambitious people and teams with great visions, a strategic approach, and the ability to turn plans into reality.