Happy New Year!

Welcome to the first posting of 2011! 


Before we begin, click on the picture below for details on an unusual CE event on January 27 -- the wine, jewelry and fine art expert from Chartis Insurance is visiting Orange County for a client event at Bacchus Wine Cellar in Irvine on January 26. She is staying through the next morning when she will deliver a CE seminar. For details, click on the PDF below and RSVP to Sadie Bailey at Sullivan Curtis Monroe.


Now on to our regularly schedule programming....

2010 was a slow year for M&A and capital raising activity, but there was some activity. Some of it resulted in deal consummation, some in frustration. As we head into what is widely expected to be a more active year – how could it not be? – I wanted to start with a few stories from last year, courtesy of some of my favorite attorneys. Here are a couple to start, and you can expect more in the next couple of weeks – so stay tuned!

Snell & Wilmer’s Jim Scheinkman represented Intri-Plex Technologies, a data storage component manufacturer that was sold to KKR-backed MMI Precision Technologies. The Santa Barbara-based company makes miniaturized components for storage, and claims to have contributed components for 40% of the hard drives in the world.


Jay Thompson of Freeman Freeman and Smiley had a rush job on the sale of a solar panel manufacturer to a financial buyer. The client and the buyer wanted to close the deal within four weeks because both parties were concerned that any delay could allow competitors to enter the market and reduce the value of the transaction. The deal -- cash with an earn-out -- closed on time in Q3.


Jay and FF&S also represented the majority shareholder of an escrow company in the sale of his share to key employees. Also a Q3 deal, the deal closed for cash and a note after intense negotiations of the value of the enterprise -- a challenging task given the poor state of the real estate market but the high performance of the company.

Meanwhile, other deals were tabled late in the process as nervous buyers started looking for extraordinary bargains in an uncertain market. Best, Best & Krieger’s George Reyes lived that dream twice. A medical-related company was asked to take a $15 million haircut on a $100 million deal by the would-be acquirer, a private equity company. No, thanks, said the target. Later in the year, internal politics driven by the buyer’s nervousness caused another deal with the same target to collapse.

Meanwhile, there is some activity now:

A group of San Diego investors has an LOI to acquire one of the premier hotel/residential properties in all Southern California. The deal side is in the $55 million range, and the group is currently finalizing some of the long-term capital. The group will take investors with a minimum participation of $5 million.