Chapter 6 - What valuation?
Vale Protective Systems was privately held.
I owned 61%.
Employees and senior executives:
18%.
Institutional investors:
21%.
We were preparing a large secondary transaction.
Not an IPO.
A private recapitalization.
Several investors wanted to buy portions of existing shareholder interests.
Cross Meridian Capital—the Cross family’s investment firm—was one of the bidders.
If the deal proceeded at our latest internal valuation, the company was worth approximately:
$3.8 billion.
Cross Meridian wanted:
A 12% stake.
At the current valuation, expensive.
If Vale suffered several highly public security failures before the transaction?
Valuation could fall.
Terms could improve for a buyer.
Still only a theory.
Businesses have failures.
Security companies especially.
The fact that Ethan mentioned valuation did not prove he caused anything.
Then my chief technology officer called.
“Dominic.”
May you like
“What?”
“We may have a problem.”
