Attorney Trent Cotney on owner regret and emotional cost of PE acquisitions

M&A/legal advisor Trent Cotney warns contractor-owners selling to private equity that the business they founded may dramatically change or disappear post-acquisition, and that many owners are surprised or upset afterward, advising them to weigh the emotional element in advance.

“But I've had a lot of, you know, contractor owners be surprised or upset about what happened post -acquisition because they saw their business dramatically change or in some cases disappear, you know, the result of additional acquisitions or, you know, things that happened. So just be prepared, think about it in advance. You've got to kind of take into account that emotional element into an acquisition and oftentimes owners overlook that.”

Signals are extracted from public coverage and print archives and pinned to a verbatim quote, presented as reported by their sources; naming a company in a signal is not an accusation against it. The verified mark denotes a high-confidence, corroborated signal. See our methodology and legal notes.