About Us
Concord Corporation is a strategic advisory firm that specializes in sell-side merger-acquisition advisory and strategic improvement for firms not-yet ready for acquisition or public offering.
Concord was founded in 1992 as a research and advisory group featuring:
- Press Access subscription research that tracked opinions and preferences of 80,000 third-party editors, analysts and opinion leaders for all sectors of digital, financial and biotechnology sectors; and
- Concord Corp strategic advisory for emerging and growing companies possessing outstanding technologies and multiple exit options.
Our Clients
Concord clients include early stage technology leaders who may or may not yet be executing on their business plan, and whose technologies are scalable, innovative, and trendsetting. Concord clients are typically performing at revenue levels from zero to $50 million, with enterprise valuations of $20 to $250 million – although a number of Concord-negotiated deals have exceeded that higher threshold. Concord clients are typically private companies, with or without venture funding.
Not all companies are ready for acquisition, and some corporations are large and complex, and better served by a large investment bank. For companies with performance shortfalls, Concord can prescribe a performance improvement program to enhance sales, refocus company strategy or address other performance shortfalls that would otherwise impede the ability of owners to secure a desirable exit.
Our Difference
Concord looks at each client as a unique set of circumstances requiring a customized and unique approach to structuring the best kind of exit, or specific remedial work needed to prepare the company for an exceptional exit. Client personnel are incorporated as part of the team combining Concord transactional expertise with client domain expertise in order to be sure every opportunity is maximized.
When possible, Concord avoids adversarial types of negotiation. We feel that while antagonistic engagement is often used in an attempt to squeeze out the highest price, we believe such hostile conversations often lead to damaged feelings and poor post-close relationships. Concord seeks to work along side the target acquirer to identify and resolve strategic needs that can be met by combining the companies.
But if your company is not yet fully ready to engage in merger discussions, Concord will help you to identify shortfalls that might prevent your company from successfully exiting. Concord will then work with your company to create a remedial Performance Improvement Program designed specifically for your company to overcome performance shortfalls and make your company an attractive acquisition target.
Our Heritage
Concord began acting on behalf of clients because we found first one client and then a second who were being intimidated and threatened by much larger competitors. In both cases Concord stepped in and tipped the scale of negotiating leverage in favor of our much smaller clients, leading to successful negotiated resolution of both conflicts. Soon after, news of our successes led to referrals and a steady flow of clients from either direct referral, 3rd party referral, reputation or repeat clients.
This spirit of championing the smaller player against the massive power and influence of a larger player has continued through the 25 years Concord has represented clients. For this reason, Concord clients are typically smaller “sell-side” companies – often with disruptive or breakthrough technologies – who for various reasons wish to exit by way of combination with a larger player. Helping clients to take their innovative technologies to the next level has always been the most exciting element of Concord’s work.
“Concord Corporation accomplished in two months what a major investment banking firm could not do in two years. A great valuation, a deal with a premier acquirer (Warren Buffett), resounding success for our shareholders and employees. Concord is amazing.”