M&As continue at a dizzying pace even while so many organizations are just trying to hang on. Apparently some of the biggest firms still have excess money or access to cheap money, and they would rather spend it acquiring than building or solidifying what they have. But if they have so much money, why are they laying so many people off? At a biotech business meeting I recently attended in DC, I kept hearing that “companies have a lot of money.”
But when I followed-up on this point with a panelist, I was told that much of this money could not be used for
operations. Apparently because of the off-shore location, or other locations where it’s hiding, it can only be used to buy stock…
Tag: <span>spin-offs</span>
There are some encouraging signs concerning the economy. We’ll know that things are improving when the big firms start to spin off companies. And the best deals will be those in which the new owners are the people who are closest to the products and technologies. As part of the deal, the divesting firm could retain certain rights or options for technologies, manufacturing, and marketing. They could also retain a certain amount of ownership in what would now be small innovative firms with people devoted to the technologies, and they could lease unused facilities to these firms instead of giving them away to people who would tear them down. And still better, would be if they returned to the very successful model of providing milestone payments when critical development goals were met…