Testimonials

Selient Inc.

In December, Selient completed the sale of all of its outstanding shares to Canadian Premier Holdings Ltd., a Canadian company and part of the Aegon family (revenue of ~ $ 6B US).

As a result of the focused effort and team work we were able to maximize shareholder value. Bob Graham worked closely with my CEO, the Special Committee and I to match our various value propositions to the needs of the buyer.

Bob and his team used their extensive proprietary database of worldwide technology companies and introduced us to firms that we would never have found by ourselves.

They approached over 3000 possible candidates on our behalf, received 50+  expressions of  interest of which 32 signed non-disclosure agreements. From this group, we narrowed down to a short-list of 8 candidates, where we entered into detailed conference discussions before asking for final proposals. The final group of 3 serious prospects resulted in the ultimate choice of Aegon.

We would highly recommend Bob Graham.

Bob MacBean
Chief Financial Officer
Selient Inc.

Avanti Computer Systems

Bob,

The things that I liked about our working together:

The main thing was that you sold the business to people I would never have known about, and never have found myself. Usually, when discussing the sale of a business, common wisdom is that the best prospects are those that you already know about. However, you, Bob, brought half a dozen different prospective buyers to the table and none of them were people I would ever have found by myself.

During the process, there were a number of times when you brought a common sense and a sense of common practice to the negotiating table, and were able to intervene when the buyers had unreasonable requests, and were able to reassure me when I thought their requests were unreasonable but were really normal.

I had been thinking about selling the company for years, and had informally approached dozens of people and had actually solicited an offer, which didn’t work, from a competitor. So, I was happily surprised to find that once I engaged you, the activity actually started and within weeks we had multiple visits from credible prospects. I had more prospects in the first three weeks of hiring you than I had in the three years previously when I had been doing it by myself on my own.

Dick Wallin
Founder & President

Versa Management Systems Ltd.

To any executive who is considering engaging Bob Graham.

When a corporation seeks a strategic partner (merger, acquisition, joint venture, etc.) it is imperative that the potential candidate list be as extensive as possible yet be qualified as to possible commonality of interest. The ideal strategic partner can be across the street, across town, in the same country, on the same continent or overseas.

The ability to identify and approach an extensive yet qualified group of strategic partners is one of the main qualifications that Bob brings to the table. They approached over 300 possible candidates on our behalf, received 29 expressions of strong interest of which 19 signed non-disclosure agreements. From this group, we narrowed to a short-list of 5 candidates where we entered into face-to-face conversations and conceptual negotiations before asking for final proposals. The prospects were so well qualified that we had a difficult time making a final selection.

Running a business successfully was our mandate. Identifying, qualifying and interesting the best prospective strategic partners was the mandate of Bob and his team and they executed extremely well.

Lynn P. Lefebvre
formerly Senior Vice-President
Versa Management Systems Ltd.
And Vice-Chairman

PointForce Inc.

To anyone thinking about selling their company:

After 23 years of growing a great software business, our shareholders decided it was time to seek outside investors to help take the company to the next level. We did considerable research looking at alternative companies that claimed to be M&A experts in the technology field and found several that seemed like good alternatives.

Bob Graham was ultimately selected based on the great references from happy clients that we received when doing our due diligence. He seemed like a good fit for our needs and was prepared to get paid based on results, not needing big up front consulting fees.

Bob was very helpful in describing the process we would go through and assisting us to present our company to its full potential. We received dozens of inquiries, signed almost 30 non-disclosure agreements and ultimately had offers to purchase the company from 6 companies. We were very pleased with our final selection of a partner, financially as well as being a great business and cultural fit with our company and its employees.

Bob’s great network of contacts and understanding of the industry helped us to maximize our return on investment. I would highly recommend Bob  to any company active in mergers, acquisitions or strategic alliances in the technology field.

Warren Pidhirny
CEO

Nubase Technologies Inc.

Why we recommend Bob Graham.

I have known Mr. Bob Graham in a professional capacity for over 4 years, since he was appointed by Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) to conduct a business review and assessment of our company’s operation, products, and finances in support of our capital seeking efforts with the bank. In later years, he further helped our company during it’s M & A efforts and was instrumental in the sale of our company’s intellectual assets.

I came to know Mr. Graham as a highly regarded professional, results oriented, honest, hard working, connected with a broad network of people in high positions. I have no hesitation to recommend Mr. Graham for similar engagements.

Fred Abasian
Chief Executive Officer