Hacker News Reader

Comment by AdmiralAsshat | Hacker News Reader

> So we wrapped it up, I got the single largest bill I've ever received in my life and then I sat down and started writing this blog post.

Where did the bill come from? Did he get billed by the prospective buying company for not purchasing him?

View on HN

He hired KPMG to help him court possible buyers, I'm guessing it came from them. They talked to 141 companies, and I doubt their hourly rate is cheap.

They get paid a portion of the proceeds of a sale (or raise if you decide not to sell and raise money instead). The bill was almost certainly from his lawyers. I went through a failed M&A process and we were left with a 90K bill for it.

> They get paid a portion of the proceeds of a sale

This is true for most M&A. But with KPMG, last I saw, they charge a retainer that must be re-upped from time to time. (The joke was that's what you get when you hire accountants as bankers.)

Having been through a similar process with KPMG (that ended similarly), I can confirm that they operated on a retainer basis and it did need to be re-upped from time to time. The vast majority of their remuneration was a success fee though. This is pretty standard for the industry.

Just to cite one example, he says he was billed by the lawyers arguing whether he was legally considered a "sophisticated investor". I imagine there's not a single party in this process that works for free or on a commission. There's a lot of work done even when it doesn't result in a sale.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com