 Michael, I am writing you to personally thank you for the many ways you helped me sell my business and realize my dream of retiring. I am hopeful that this letter will effectively share with other company owners and buyers the extent to which you performed remarkable services for my company and me.When we first met, you very frankly, honestly and knowledgeably assessed the value of my business. It was immediately evident that your prior investment banking experience coupled with your astute business acumen and your legal background would prove to be immensely valuable in preparing, positioning and ultimately selling the company that I took years to build. Your current appraised value for my company was not what I wanted to hear, nor was it what I needed to retire. However, you worked with me over a two-year period to develop and refine my exit strategy and to build the value of my company. During that time, you identified the areas of my business that required attention and improvement, including assessments of marketing, financial management, operational management, and other areas and together we planned and implemented a number of value enhancing changes. You managed the process of installing a new accounting system and financial controls to redeveloping the organizational structure of my business. With your monthly and quarterly feedback of our financial and operational improvements, I became much clearer and focused on the further necessary improvements to build value so that I could attain my financial goals to retire. Your exceptional advice was unquestionably instrumental in dramatically increasing the value of my business and I cannot thank you enough for all of your thoughtful and precise advice. Two and half years later, my company attained the goals we had laid out. You and your CEG team produced a comprehensive and high quality marketing package, and you diligently and confidentially took my company to market. After locating the perfect synergistic buyer, you successfully shepherded the process through the letter of intent, due diligence and definitive agreements stages, coordinating with my and the buyer's accountants and attorneys. Most importantly, you identified the most critical deal points and negotiated them to my advantage while leaving the buyer in a winning position for their critical deal points. The result was absolutely wonderful for everyone. I got a price well beyond what I ever expected, and one that allowed me to retire. You truly are the best in your business and I can only hope that this letter of recognition conveys my deepest appreciation for all of your considerable efforts. Retirement is everything I hoped for and more. As the deal became real, a tremendous weight was lifted from me, and I am enjoying life more than ever imaginable-thank you again for everything!  Thomas McCarthyPresident, Du-All Thermo Products, Inc. |
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For nearly twenty years, my law firm has performed escrow services for transactions where California Equity Group has acted as the merger and acquisition intermediary. It has been my experience that Clarence Stone and Michael Sieber are extremely proficient, hard-working, knowledgeable and creative deal-makers, especially at handling the inevitable difficulties between parties to a transaction. They each possess the myriad of legal, accounting, tax, psychological and negotiating skills necessary to effectively manage the complicated process of a company sale, merger, or divestiture. More importantly, I have found both of them to be honest, personable and staunch advocates for their clients. In short, Clarence and Michael from California Equity Group are some of the best business broker, merger and acquisition specialists in the business. I strongly recommend them to anyone who is contemplating the sale or purchase of a business.
William H. Dunn The Law Offices of William H. Dunn |
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“I was informed that one of my competitors had expressed interest to a mutual acquaintance about selling their company. This competitor was one which would have been an excellent acquisition or merger candidate for us as our industry is segmented mostly by local geographic territories. This competitor concentrated its marketing efforts and sales on the territory directly next to ours. Most importantly, though, relative to our interest in this company was the fact that it had been established for approximately twenty-five years and had stable sales and earnings.
I asked my corporate attorney and my CPA for referrals for business brokers and or merger and acquisition specialists who could represent us with the possible acquisition of this competitor. Ironically, both my attorney and CPA referred me to the same person: Clarence Stone. Clarence, as I later learned, is one of the principals at California Equity Group, a merger and acquisition firm specializing in the sale of middle market companies in Northern California.
After retaining the services of Mr. Stone, he confidentially contacted this competitor on our behalf. Thereafter, he prepared an appraisal and valuation of this company and he skillfully started the process of negotiating the merger deal of two large HVAC companies into one corporation. Clarence astutely arranged all the terms and conditions of this complicated merger and he also worked closely with and provided much needed advice to our attorney and CPA. Furthermore, Clarence shrewdly enlisted the cooperation and assistance of the third party entities to the transaction such as lenders, landlords and governmental agencies.
Without a doubt, Clarence's expertise and professionalism with the handling of this transaction is the reason that we were able to successfully merge these two companies into an environment where both parties to the merger came away winners. Kindly accept this letter as a referral for the services of Clarence Stone from California Equity Group for anyone who is contemplating the sale or acquisition of a business.,”
Steven Trillo, President, L.R. Trillo, Inc.