The Divestiture Process, Step by Step
by M. Eric Furlow

  1. Sign the Consulting Agreement
  2. Prepare a "Blind Overview". This is to inform buyers of the basics of your business without prospective buyers knowing who you are. The weekly deal list has Blind Overviews. Below are some examples.

    Examples: Website Development company, established in 2004, with annual revenues of $210,000. 2006 sales growth was 25%. Company specializes in custom website development and e-commerce and owns rights to a variety of source code, including market ready applications. Healthy repeat business and recurring revenue programs. Offices are located in a 2,000 square foot facility, which includes space and facilities for hosting.

    Shared web hosting company with approximately $645,000 of annualized recurring revenues. Uses Modern Bill and Cpanel control panel. There are approximately 3,850 accounts. All Windows. The company co-locates company owned servers.

    Linux shared web hosting company, hosting approximately 2,700 accounts with monthly revenues of $32,000, annualizing to $384,000. The company provides a proprietary Control Panel and uses IspEasy for billing. The company owns its own equipment and all servers and equipment are located on site.

    Dedicated/Managed server hosting company with monthly revenues of approximately $95,000. Approximately 725 customers. The majority of servers are Linux with a few Windows boxes. Servers are owned and are co-located in a data center in NJ.
  3. I will then send the Weekly Deal List out to 900+- active, or formerly active, buyers of Internet assets around the world. It is important to note that the 900+- contacts include the other brokers and consultants who work in the Internet space around the world, who will in turn send the Blind Overview out to all of their buyers. So the Blind Overview gets circulated to possibly a few thousand people around the world.
  4. We create a Company Overview which is created from the information on this list. http://www.furlowconsulting.com/isp.htm
  5. When a prospective buyer responds to the Blind Overview, I have them sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement... only then do I send them the Company Overview.
  6. Buyers will have follow-up questions and conference calls. I will then create a Frequently Asked Questions Document. For example, when Buyer #1 asks 3 questions, Buyer #2 asks 2 different questions, and Buyer #3 asks 4 different questions, I get all of their questions and your answers and combine them into 1 document and send it out to everyone. This educates everyone more effectively and helps them brainstorm what they might not have thought of.
  7. As prospective buyers pop up, I create a Buyer's Status doc where I list all of the buyers and their status. The document shows which documents they have received and their current status.
  8. We then ask interested buyers if they want to send in an offer. You decide which offer you like, after countering them, then I will ask them to send in a Letter of Intent.
  9. We then help the buyer with their due diligence and at the same time create the Purchase Agreement.
  10. Select a Closing Date.

This process can take as little as 3 weeks, or more common 6-12 weeks.