Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: They bought a business in 2008 just before the crash, but still made ~$1 billion How to buy an accounting business (without being an accountant) 🔑 Making ~$1 billion buying a business in 2008 Imagine buying a business in February 2008, just months before the global economy melted down. Anyone who did that must have lost a fortune, right? Not in this case. Today we are looking at the deal...
9 days ago • 4 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: A $71 million buyout with culture fit issues Learn to buy any type of business 🔑 An LBO with culture fit issues Over the last few months, I've written about deals that either failed spectacularly or were massive homeruns. Today, I'm writing about one that's somewhere in between. It was a good deal with a pretty good result, but it was hampered by a culture fit issue. Let's dive in. The Deal...
16 days ago • 4 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: They bought a struggling company's best asset - and made billions How to roll up software businesses (and more) 🔑 Turning a $2.3 billion investment into $6 billion+ Corporate carve-outs can be great opportunities for buyers. Today we're going to look at a classic example of one. A "carve-out strategy" is when a parent company strategically separates a part of its business (a division or...
23 days ago • 5 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: A $1.7 Billion that Returned less than $500 million Here's how I'd buy a business 🔑 A $1.7 Billion Acquisition That Failed Last week I wrote about the 1980's LBO of some iconic department stores. The acquisition quickly failed and resulted in bankruptcy. The target company was Federated Department Stores, owners of brands like Bloomingdale's. After bankruptcy, Federated re-emerged and...
30 days ago • 3 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: FOMO made him lose a $6 billion business PE is buying again 20+ business buyers told me their secrets 🔑A Cautionary Tale of FOMO We all get FOMO. Fear of Missing Out. Afraid we'll miss out on buying a great business, for example. Today I want to share an example of a deal where FOMO took over and caused disaster. In the 1980s, Federated Department Stores was one of America's top upscale...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: This blockbuster acquisition flopped in just 3 years He bought a small business - and sold it for a 24x return 🔑 This blockbuster acquisition flopped in just 4 years Name a better business to get into during the 1980s than movie theaters. It's tough to do. Think of all the blockbuster hits of the 90s: Jurassic Park. Titanic. Forrest Gump. Star Wars Episode 1. The Lion King. Friday night in...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: "Discount Jewelry" vs. "Affordable Luxury" - this simple rebrand made $182 million $1.1 billion PE acquisition I talked with 20+ business buyers - here's what they told me 🔑 This LBO netted $182 million in just 26 months When people talk about the golden age of private equity, the conversation usually jumps straight to KKR’s acquisition of RJR Nabisco. It's the most famous LBO ever. But...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: How to rollup a boring industry Avoid this business buying mistake Buying $5 billion in real estate (here's how he did it) 🔑 Textbook M&A deal in a boring industry I usually write about historical M&A deals from decades past. This week, let's switch it up and talk about a recent deal in a boring industry: Industrial reliability services. You probably haven't heard of this business, so let's...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: How MySpace went from $580 million to $12 billion, and then to zero Why private equity is eating at Denny's The best business buyers I know 🔑 They bought MySpace - and lost $545 million Imagine nailing a trend years ahead of time - but still losing over $500 million. That's what happened when legacy media giant News Corp acquired MySpace (anyone else remember setting their Top 8?) MySpace...
2 months ago • 4 min read
