Buying distressed/turnaround companies

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January 28, 2020

by a searcher from Northwestern University in Melbourne, FL, USA

Does anyone have experience buying distressed/turnaround companies?


Any good books, websites, etc?

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Reply by a searcher
from American College of Greece in Los Angeles, CA, USA
I've don't it twice with very distressed companies. I liked the idea of taking over the challenge, stress test my skills, and gain more experience.

Since then, I have had two separate cases where PE approached me to take over two distressed companies. Both had a long history of decreased revenues, failed attempts to market reposition, and some litigations. Ok, been there, done that, I considered the idea...BUT... unlike in the past, these companies were utterly talent drained at that point. That was a deal-breaker from my side, which was also my advice to the investors to step back. Eventually, one of them was bought in a bankruptcy auction by a notorious M&A group. The other one was purchased by a high-net-worth individual who just liked the idea at the moment of owning the IP. I can't imagine the shape of both entities at this point...but I bet I can get them out of their hands for nearly nothing. The point is, when a horse is dead, you should treat it as dead.
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Reply by a searcher
from The University of Chicago in Dallas, TX, USA
1 star - would not recommend. Did it once. Worst professional experience of my life. Ended up doing ok financially, but I hated every minute and would not consider another. That said some people thrive on them.

I had always been an operational focused, team and relationship builder. Instead I was constantly scrambling to keep the business afloat, there was no strategy, just tactics.

Primary issue for me. I was left with the employees I could still afford and who had stuck around during the decline - almost by definition those without much else in the way of prospects - certainly not the A teams I had built elsewhere. I ended up having to replace almost all of senior staff and much of the sales team, that soured me for the business and it was the right thing to bring in a fresh face that had not been forced to make all of those negative morale destroying decisions.
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