Ethos Business Law

I recently saw yet another example of why building and maintain relationships is one of the most important skills you must master in order to become a successful business person.  While working with a client through a complex and tricky loan restructure, one of the participating lenders was experiencing significant pressure on its business from bank regulators, unrelated to my client.  This pressure caused that lender to create problems in the loan workout.  However, the lead lender and the borrower had developed a strong relationship over many years and were able to leverage that relationship built on trust and proven execution to allow all participants to come to a workable solution.  Had it not been for the strong relationship between the lead lender and the borrower, the result would have been drastically different. (more…)

In an article published last week in Forbes, some experts have declared that deal-making is back, citing some large recent transactions:

• Dell’s $3.9 billion acquisition of Perot Systems in September
• Walt Disney’s $4 billion tie-up with Marvel in August
• Exxon Mobil’s $41 billion all-stock buy of XTO Energy in December
• AIG offloading its Asian life insurance business to the U.K.’s Prudential for $35.5 billion

While these deals certainly make headlines, I don’t think they do much for main street American business and more importantly, I don’t think you can declare that merger and acquisition activity is back based on these deals alone. (more…)