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Brain Alliance to be acquired by Soprano
Just 6 minutes ago this stock market filing (in finnish) went live from Soprano. It outlines an acquisition we have been working on lately:
Soprano Plc is to buy Brain Alliance Solutions, Ltd (www.brainalliance.com). Asmo Halinen and myself are in the board, together with the CEO-Entrepreneur Jukka Hassinen.
Moments like these are rare cool stuff: despite of being an entrepreneur for more than 10 years and having 4 tradesales behind me already, stuff like this is not on the agenda every day.
Soprano is a publicly listed company in the Nasdaq OMX market, and in this acquisition they acquire 51% of Brain Alliance - effectively making Brain Alliance a public company.
The talks that lead to this acquisition progressed quite quickly - as is typical when two parties that share a strong common interest "discover" each other. Brain Alliance's CEO Jukka Hassinen has a nice entrepreneurial war story behind him: starting about 6 years ago with nothing straight from school, and now selling to a well-known public company. That's first class entrepreneurial example for you! (althou I must admit that the scale is still quite small: these companies are not mega-corporations yet, but they have such a huge potential for growth. Especially when combined together like this).
It was a pleasure and a privilege to be working on this.
This was my second time being involved in a tradesale to a public company: back in 2003 I sold Fuksiini Sites, Ltd. as its CEO, to a company listed in the same stock exchange.
People have been recently citing that "we need entrepreneurial examples in this country" - well here's one, so spread the word!
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Hi. My name is Taneli Tikka. This is where I preach what I practice. I'm a
serial entrepreneur and a startup activist of sorts. People usually know me
from my past and present consumer Internet service projects: IRC-Galleria,
Dopplr, Muxlim, StarDoll, RunToShop, Vakuutuskone.com, and a bunch of other stuff. My
"proper" bio is behind this link. Glad to see you here, thanks for browsing
around.
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Nicely done.
Wed, 2009-06-17 11:19 — Odin (not verified)Thumbs up! Would like to hear more about Soprano intention in buying BA, though.
Hi and congratz! How do you
Wed, 2009-06-17 17:25 — Anonymous (not verified)Hi and congratz!
How do you see the valuation of BAS when compared to other similar acquisitions?
valuation etc
Wed, 2009-6-17 21:16 – tanelithe valuation in this case is quite allright: it's on part with public tech companies P/E figures - with a significant upside component build into the deal. not bad at all.
An example but a good one? It depends.
Mon, 2010-05-10 23:28 — pxlape (not verified)You were looking for some comment fuel to your writing fire, so here comes a canister - i am a bit in doubt that this might not be in the normal praising lines.
First my take on basic attitude of starting and running a business: i feel quite strange this climate you are promoting that companies are valued as success stories only if they're sold. This leads to conclusion that companies are founded just to be sold/bought, products or value that they're producing for their clients is secondary. Makes one think if entrepreneurs have any idea of making business besides filling their pockets in exits that seem to be your - and many other's - only valuation point for a entrepreneur.
Second thing that meets my eye in this is the party who BAS was sold, i doubt very heavily that Soprano has any real vision what to do with BAS: they are a communication/ad-agency, BAS is a web-dev company. I can't see any synergy here, maybe Soprano bought someone to clean their mistakes & failures in ecommerce projects they have been so eager to tout in numerous market filings. Soprano has also quite obscure reputation within its own field so i would have used a moment or two to really evaluate the buyer if i was selling.
Reply to Antti Riikola's comment
Wed, 2010-5-12 14:03 – taneliHellow Antti,
I agree with you on many accounts there. Seems like you have some historical baggage with Soprano, and some of the criticism comes from that? I have none of that burden; it's a new start and a new acquaintance for me - so I am willing to give them (as anyone) the benefit of a doubt and an open mind to see how the relationship and trust develops, if it does. Redemption needs to be there.
Using exits as the yardstick for entrepreneurial success is the silicon valley way to go. And it is not my way to go. I dislike it just as much; for the same reasons. A sustainable, profitable, amazing business that really creates awesome products and services is so much better than a false empty exit. The word alone "entrepreneur" describes what the primary value driver is and should be: it's the enterprise itself. It's business and products. It's ability to create value for customer. There isn't and exit anywhere in there.
The exit gets there as the result of investors, primarily. Exit is the only situation where their business (their entrepreneurial activity) gets their profits from; so it is entirely necessary and 100% demanded by them. Hence the emphasis on exits. Also big corporations need them; they absolutely need to buy smaller and smarter companies to renew their monolithic businesses with slow structures and old ideas.
I have never founded a company with the only purpose of selling it. Also I have never CEO'd or ran a company with the only purpose of selling it. That cannot be done - it just doesn't work - and I strongly advice against anybody attempting it either. Wrong in so many ways, and professionals can see though that from miles away.
The yardstick of entrepreneurial success is the enterprise itself. And in exit situations its the win-win-win situation created and benefit for all parties involved.
Regarding Soparno: take a closer look at what they do now. Buying BAS has transformed the company and there's a genuine new direction they are moving towards. And it looks quite positive indeed, unfortunately the government regulation of a public market place prevents me from touching the topic beyond vague sentimentality :(
The specific case of BAS was the correct choice even in hindsight 20-20. Strong logical grounds and reasoning behind the transaction.
Exits are the necessary "evil" of entrepreneurial activity, and it's the only business VCs and many other financiers know.
There might be enough stuff here to write a proper blog post about. Thanks!
Not so quick, Mister
Sun, 2010-05-30 21:10 — pxlape (not verified)Wahey, you're alive and blogging:)
I suggest that you do not make too quick conclusions based on assumptions. People that criticize parties you're involved with do not necessarily have baggage, there might even be educated opinions based on actions of the subject and experiences within the business.
My background with Soprano is non-existent, if there was any i might have kept it down a notch or two, but as 10+ years in this business i've never come across a working sample of their ecommerce solution or any decent corporate communication implementation especially in digital universe. They've put out somewhat sketchy filings touting their achievements that nobody's heard of and future business predictions that nobody in their field shares. Last one is based on hearsay, but they've got a reputation of being a bit of nuisance in advertising and communication business.
I don't see myself in position where i'm expected to justify my stand but if my perception as an outsider has formed like this, i think it's fair to voice it and consider if there was something to it.
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