Almost two weeks have past since my last entry. For a few days there was a flurry of information exchanged with our competitors through Marty, generally trying to clear up some financial information. As usual they asked more questions and we replied "After the Letter of Intent." With all of this activity they certainly seemed like they were doing their due diligence.
But then today they called Marty and told them they weren't going to go any farther down this road, and there wasn't going to be any sort of offer, nothing, nada, zilch. I wanted to call their primary owner personally to see what has happened, but Marty has been trying to convince me that isn't a good idea. I don't see why it isn't a good idea, but I told him I wouldn't do it, at least not today.
This idea of running everything through a business broker is beginning to annoy me. I'd at least like some better feedback on why we aren't getting any sort of offer at all.
We also had a very long talk today about what price he has been giving customers. He said he's been leaving it as open as he can, not suggesting a buying price to potential buyers, but I have to wonder if he isn't saying "three million dollars" at some point. Again, way back when, I did my own business valuation on our company, and I could rationalize $1.5M to $2M, but not $3M. If I'm a buyer, and he's telling me $3M, and I'm thinking "$1.5M, tops", I don't know if I would bother to make an offer either.
Argh, I don't know if any of this is true, and I'm probably just writing this because I'm upset. This is the second competitor who now knows that our business is for sale, and it's making me feel pretty darned vulnerable.