NOLs can be hard to understand

February 23, 2009

Net operating losses, or NOLs, accumulate when a business has tax losses in a given year rather than profits. They are typically carried back to earlier profits but may be accumulated in as carry-forwards for up to 20 years. Sirius, after recently merging with XM, has an unfortunate asset: accumulated NOLs of [...]

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When directors understand governance

February 9, 2009

Footnoted, a regular read for us, recently found some great references to intra-board conflict resolution, or the lack thereof.
This memo by director Thomas Hallagan explains several of the reasons he decided to leave the board of Amerisafe at the expiration of his term. We’ve heard similar comments from directors at other [...]

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Redesigning

January 31, 2009

We are redesigning our site to improve our communications with you: our clients, our prospects, our market.
Please share your thoughts with us in the comments.

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Bolstering valuations through detailed analysis

January 28, 2009

Most valuations follow a traditional pathway, with only slight differences between public and private companies:
1. Determine a valuation range based on the values of comparable public companies
2. Determine a valuation range based on the values revealed by transactions involving comparable companies
3. Perform a discounted cash flow analysis
Using the three legs [...]

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Is your firm ready for alternative fee structures?

January 21, 2009

Since I’ve been involved in the legal profession — fifteen years now — firms and general counsel have been talking about alternative fee structures. The failings of the billable hour system as well as the reasons for its persistence in the face of its demise in most other professional services businesses, [...]

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How to make faster decisions

January 21, 2009

We’ve written before about decisiveness, the skill of being able to make decisions quickly, particularly in an environment of uncertainty and obviously incomplete information. Recognizing that not only will you never have access to complete information that is also completely reliable is just one piece of the puzzle. You also have [...]

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Use a deal diagram shape template to capture details

January 19, 2009

In both my past as a corporate lawyer and as a strategic advisor, I often find myself drawing deal diagrams for a variety of parties. Even among those familiar with deal diagrams, I have not found any great uniformity in the choice of shapes; most people go with rectangles all around. [...]

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Quote – planning too much?

January 19, 2009

For some time now, we’ve been working with a senior retired banker from Lazard who is on our board of advisers. We essentially hired him to be our boss, in terms of helping us with strategic decisions, setting priorities, and gaining perspective on events that would help us make better decisions.

Mr. P [...]

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Clear examples of weighted-average analysis

December 9, 2008

When we start discussing our heavy usage of weighted averages with customers, we sometimes get a questioning look, until we make the analysis more concrete for them. People are very familiar with using averages; equity analysts regularly look at numbers such as Days of Sales Outstanding that are composite numbers for [...]

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Do financial services companies provide value?

December 6, 2008

There is an interesting Forbes article by John Bogle in the November 17 issue.
To summarize, Bogle determined that in a recent year, the “financial services” industry effectively took $620 billion off the top for a 7% fee on $9.5 trillion value of stocks, or 2% of a $30 trillion value of bonds, [...]

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