Surgent's Private Company M&A for Accounting and Finance Professionals

Overview

This course provides a practical overview of the accounting professional’s role in buying or selling a private company. Instead of focusing on technical deal language, the course explains the key business and financial issues that often affect mergers and acquisitions, including the purchase agreement, the final sale price, and financial adjustments after closing.

Participants will learn how issues such as customer concentration, hidden liabilities, working capital, and debt can impact the value of a company and the structure of a transaction. The course also explains the role accounting professionals can play before, during, and after a business sale.

Highlights

M&A deal basics: understanding customer and vendor concentration, possible liabilities, off-balance sheet issues, and how these items can affect the sale price
Understanding purchase agreement terms that affect the numbers, including working-capital targets, debt-like adjustments, earnout payments, and improper transfers of company assets or funds before closing
Reviewing common deal protections, including representations, warranties, and indemnification provisions from a practical business perspective
Preparing for post-closing issues such as accounting controls, financial reporting
priorities, escrow holdbacks, and potential disputes between buyers and sellers

Prerequisites

None

Designed For

Accounting and finance professionals who want a practical overview of private company M&A issues

Objectives

Recognize common financial issues that can affect the price, structure, and accounting for a private company transaction
Explain how financial reviews can connect to required due diligence, purchase agreement terms, and post-closing issues
Identify purchase agreement provisions that accounting and finance professionals should understand
Understand how representations, warranties, and indemnities affect risk in a transaction
Identify disclosure schedule items and supporting documentation that finance and accounting professionals may be asked to review or organize