As you may expect the undeniably straightforward answer to this question is a resounding YES! Acquirers typically pay the most for businesses which have the potential to grow. In rare cases, an acquiring company may even buy a business with lots of growth potential yet performs relatively poorly on many other business attributes because the buyer sees a way to leverage some of its own assets to help the business grow much more quickly than it could otherwise grow under the cu

Microsoft’s recent $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn provides an illustrative example of a strategic acquisition – the type of sale that usually garners the most gain for the acquired company’s shareholders. You may be wondering what a billion-dollar acquisition has to do with your business, but the very same reasons a strategic acquirer buys a $26 billion business holds true for the acquisition of a $2 million company. The financial vs. strategic buyer A financial buyer