Private Companies: Raise, Sell, or Go Under

Foley is sponsoring the upcoming NACD Private Companies: Raise, Sell, or Go Under Webinar. Silicon Valley-based Corporate Partner Louis Lehot will be joined for this discussion together with:

Claudia Munce Venture Advisor, NEA; Board Director, Best Buy, Arteris.IP, BMO Financial Corp.; Faculty at Stanford University Graduate School of Business; Chair, NACD Northern California

Heidi Roizen Partner, Threshold Ventures; Board Director, Planet Labs, Upside Foods Inc

Private company boards are increasingly navigating a multiple-track process for financing, liquidity, or a recapitalization transaction to stay afloat in the current downward-trending environment for equity and debt capital as well as corporate M&A.

During Q2 of 2023, for venture capital, we saw double-digit declines on a sequential and year-over-year basis both in capital deployed and number of deals, while fundraising has become a herculean obstacle for fund managers. While AI has been buoyed by the hype cycle, financial technology has been in a free fall. Despite mass amounts of dry powder and available cash on hand, strategic and financial buyers have largely been on the sidelines, as the gap in expectations between buyers and sellers has become chasmic. The Federal Trade Commission has challenged all kinds of M&A, and the president has just signed a new Executive Order to further restrain investment into China.

For emerging private companies and their boards of directors, it is a challenging time to manage for growth or exit, especially for those who raised at the zenith of expectations in 2021. For companies who have not achieved the break-even or hyper-growth stage, this can be a challenging environment to navigate.

This webinar will explore the role of directors in raising, selling, or liquidating in this market. Answering questions like: When is the right time to raise, how do you manage the process, how do you explore alternatives without putting a “for sale” sign in front of your company, and what happens when you run out of runway?

To learn more and register to attend, please click here.