Business Broker - General

General

The sellers and buyers themselves are the principals in the sale, and business brokers (and the principal broker's agents) are their agents as defined in the law. However, although a business broker commonly fills out the offer to purchase form, agents are typically not given power of attorney to sign the offer to purchase or the closing documents; the principals sign these documents. The respective business brokers may include their brokerages on the contract as the agents for each principal.

The use of a business broker is not a requirement for the sale or conveyance of a business or for obtaining a Small business or SBA loan from a lender. However, once a broker is used, A special escrow attorney sometimes called a settlement attorney (or party handling closing) will ensure that all parties involved be paid. Lenders typically have Special requirements for a business related or SBA loan.

The market served by business brokers generally involves the sale of businesses with transaction values less than $10,000,000 . Larger privately held companies are classified in the Middle Market and will employ firms that specialize in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). However, business brokers do participate in mergers and acquisitions activities when it involves a transaction between two or more smaller companies. Business Brokers and M&A firms do overlap activities in the extremes of their market. These extremes are called the Transitional Market, or TransMarket.