Following a Ransomware Attack As businesses continue to rely on computers and digital storage of important data, cyberattacks are a growing potential threat to these organizations—especially now, as businesses have transitioned their workforces to work remotely. There are many types of cyber threats, and the pandemic has driven a surge in ransomware attacks. Ransomware is malware specifically designed to di ...

Alternative Means to Effectively Gauge Business Operations and Assist Owners Three ratios that are widely used have validity because they are either used in business valuations, loan covenants, reports to stockholders in Form 10-Ks, used when financial statement analyses are performed, or have familiarity because they have become entrenched in the system. The author of this article considers reliance on the ...

Changes in the Methods of Dispute Resolution In this article, Steven I. Platt, a retired Maryland Circuit Court judge, founder of The Platt Group, Inc., and QuickRead’s newest editorial board member, shares with readers the changes he sees affecting civil court proceedings, rise of alternative dispute resolutions, and opportunities that are becoming available to credentialed business valuation and financial ...

Most of us want big results with our practices. We want to be sought after in our industry and have a line of prospects waiting to become clients. We want fees that reflect our value and not our time. The question is: What are we doing to make that happen—taking risks or doing the hard work? In this article, Rob Burkert discusses the consequences of each choice. Most of us want big results with our practice ...

Indications for 2022 After an understandable slowdown in 2020, due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the healthcare industry accelerated in 2021, and the industry is expected to continue the high number of deals and high deal volume in 2022. This article will review the U.S. healthcare industry’s M&A activity in 2021 and discuss what these trends may mea ...

Rising Levels of High Mental Readiness for an Exit Business owners often-times see exit planning as a complicated, overwhelming, and emotional process. Accordingly, few owners adequately prepare for this significant event. However, an exit plan is essential to help business owners manage the illiquid wealth in their businesses, particularly in turbulent times such as these marked by strife that is present i ...

April 2022 Two cases from Delaware and New York provide guidance to financial forensics and valuation professionals on the fiduciary duties that managers and directors owe to enterprises. The first case, In re: Multiplan Corp. Stockholders Litigation, is a class action arising from allegedly inadequate disclosure of a merger between a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and a privatel ...

Assess the Extent of Real or Attributed Power and Consider the Source of Power to Develop a Negotiation Strategy Power, whether real or perceived, can influence negotiations, and comes from several sources: privilege, intimidation, withholding resources, etc. When preparing for a meeting with others to resolve a controversy or dispute, it is important to consider the power sources of all the participants. T ...

What Forces Drive the Competition in the Industry? The author of this article shares his thoughts on the book, Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. This was a book he had read sections of during his university days, but this time around, read it with a new vantage point considering his education and experiences since then; particularly in the business valuation field. H ...

It is Not Just for Divorce Anymore Personal and enterprise goodwill are not just relevant in marital dissolution cases; they are important considerations in bankruptcy, tax, business succession planning, execution of buy-sell agreements, and transactional matters. These other matters present practitioners with additional ways of differentiating their services. In this article, the author shares the importan ...

RAND Corporation 2022 Study Published in JAMA A study conducted by the RAND Corporation and published in the January 2022 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) seeking to determine whether health systems primarily incentivize volume or value in their physician compensation models found that almost all physicians are still compensated through a volume-based model that rewards produc ...

Revisiting the Energy Capital Corp. v United States Case Causation It is important for the research and literature in our field to advance. Books, articles, and presentations help us improve and perfect the work we provide to the courts. It is also important that we review the history of our field to remind us “why we do things the way we do.” When reviewing the Energy Capital Corp. v United States case, fi ...

Consider the Tax Consequences of Stock Awards, Stock Option Awards, and Partnership Profits Interests This discussion summarizes what analysts need to know about the taxation issues and the security valuation issues related to private company equity incentive compensation programs. It focuses on both the taxation aspects and the valuation aspects of implementing an equity incentive compensation plan at a pr ...

A Review of Everett P. Harry, III and Jeffrey H. Kinrich’s 2022 Second Edition In 2017, Everett P. Harry, III and Jeffrey H. Kinrich released Lost Profits Damages: Principles, Methods, and Applications. Their purpose in publishing the book was to provide a comprehensive reference guide to cover important topics relevant to determination of lost profit damages. This book review discusses the second edition r ...

Citation Omitted What makes the world of expert witness services so daunting at times is the fact that so much goes unsaid, untaught, or undefined. For example, the most recent international glossary used by valuation and appraisal professionals across the globe does not define what a conclusion or opinion is. Since saying the silent part out loud seems to be the popular thing to do, this tenth article of t ...

Into the Market-Based Valuation (Part II of II) This is the second of the two-part article regarding country risk. In this second part, the author discusses how to incorporate the risk into multiples. Read Part I here. Incorporating Country Risk into Multiples Having found the value of the country risk premium required, we can proceed with incorporating it into the market-based valuation. It is worth mentio ...

Part II of II This is the second of a two-part article (Read Part I here) that focuses on the situation where the target company is a private corporation, and the sellers are employee/shareholders. This discussion summarizes the taxation and valuation considerations related to a transaction where employee/shareholders are selling the private C corporation stock to a C corporation acquirer. Some of the taxat ...

Into the Market-Based Valuation (Part I of II) This is a two-part article on how to incorporate country risk premium. The market-based approach to valuation is commonly used by market practitioners and is based on the relevant values and multiples from similar assets. One of the differentiators between assets is the country risk related to the operations, when the multiples are collected from various countr ...

(Part I of II) This is a two-part article that focuses on the situation where the target company is a private corporation, and the sellers are employee/shareholders. This discussion summarizes the taxation and valuation considerations related to a transaction where employee/shareholders are selling the private C corporation stock to a C corporation acquirer. Some of the taxation and valuation considerations ...

The Consequences When there is a Mismatch Between the CEO’s Strategy and the Lifecycle the Company is Operating In On December 10, 2021, Aswath Damodaran published a blog titled Musing on Markets. In this blog he asked what makes for a “great CEO”? What happens when there is a mismatch between the lifecycle the company operates in and the strategy pursued by the CEO? He then answered these questions based ( ...