Buying a company? Which are you buying: its stock or assets? - Cleveland Business News - Northeast Ohio and Cleveland - Crain's Cleveland Business

Buying or selling a business can be complex: Whether it’s an asset purchase, stock sale or merger, each situation is unique. With the ever-changing tax landscape, choosing the right method will have significant future consequences for the business.

Purchasing stock has always been the easiest way to buy a business. There are typically no employment agreements, leases, franchise agreements or patents to transfer to the new owner, along with the transfer of the title to real estate and personal property, which could be costly. With a stock sale, these agreements and assets continue to be owned by the same company with a new owner. However, there must be a way to protect the buyer from the risks of the prior owner’s liabilities, and this is where good counsel is essential.

Over the past 20 years, the choice to acquire the business assets as opposed to stock has been driven mostly by the simplification of protecting the buyer from the seller’s past liabilities and the tax deductibility of the value of the intangible assets of the company.

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Buying a company? Which are you buying: its stock or assets? - Cleveland Business News - Northeast Ohio and Cleveland - Crain's Cleveland Business: "

For additional information regarding Florida business sales, acquisitions and valuations, please contact Eric J. Gall at info@buysellflbiz.com or 239.738.6227. Also, visit our Florida Business Exchange website at www.fbxbrokers.com and my personal website at www.buysellflbiz.com.