Beswick and Wine: Buying and Selling Private Companies and Businesses

Susan Singleton is a solicitor with her own London commercial solicitor's firm, Singletons (www.singlelaw.com) which advises a large range of UK and international clients on business law with particular emphasis on litigation, competition law and IP/IT. Author of 33 law books and contributor to 49 more, she writes regularly on legal matters for a variety of publications. She is a frequent speaker having given about 1700 legal courses/lectures since 1990 in 16 countries i.e. in the UK, Austria, Belgium, Dubai, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Nigeria, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and Turkey. . She publishes ten subscription legal newsletters acquired from Informa including - IT Law Today, Corporate Briefing, Pensions Today, Finance and Credit Law and International Trade Finance. She practised first at Slaughter and May and Bristows before founding her own firm in 1994. She recently sat on the Direct Marketing Authority for 5 years and was Vice Chairman of the Competition Law Association. In 2020 she was one of the Society of Computers and Law Female Tech Law Heroes. A mother of five (her daughters both qualified as solicitors in 2011/12 and two of her youngest children, twin sons are due to qualify as solicitors in 2024) in her spare time she plays the piano, sings and tends her garden. She has three grandchildren. She is past Chairman of Pinner Hill Residents Association and until recently enjoyed her own island in Panama. She can be followed on twitter at singlelaw.

Part I: The Seller’s Perspective
Chapter 1: An overview of the sale process
Chapter 2: Assessment of marketability
Chapter 3: Preparing the sale
Chapter 4: Marketing
Chapter 5: Negotiation process
Part II: The Purchaser’s Perspective
Chapter 6: An overview of the acquisition process
Chapter 7: Acquisition strategy
Chapter 8: The search process
Chapter 9: Negotiation
Chapter 10: Due Diligence
Part III: The Acquisition Agreement
Chapter 11: General principles
Chapter 12: Share purchase
Chapter 13: Business transfer agreement
Part IV: Post–completion
Chapter 14: Announcements and notifications
Chapter 15: Implementing changes to the workforce
Chapter 16: Stamp duty
Part V: Special Situations
Chapter 17: Buy-outs
Chapter 18: Buying and selling technology businesses
Part VI: Precedents