Seven Reasons Why We Are Your Valuation Firm Of Choice
1.
Our Primary Mission: BVC’s primary mission is to provide focused valuation expertise to the companies and industries driving the Innovation Economy, from startups seeking new investors to mature, private companies contemplating an exit strategy.
2.
Our Scope of Services: Our valuations have been confidently relied upon for merger, acquisition, financial and tax reporting purposes, as well as for dispute resolution, litigation support and fairness opinions.
3.
Extensive Track Record: Valuation conclusions are key strategic assets. Selecting the right valuation expert to make that critical determination of value is a crucial management decision. Having served more than 5,000 information technology and high-growth venture-financed companies, BVC’s principals have mastered both the art and the science of valuation in the Innovation Economy, as defined by the industry’s investment, financial and legal communities.
4.
Authorities in the Industry: BVC was entrusted as the primary valuation advisor to the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) Program — the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) $24-billion family of private equity and venture capital funds — for more than five years. The SBIC Program provides funding to over 400 equity and debt funds. These funds have portfolios reflecting more than 4,500 investments, most of which are in companies driving the Innovation Economy. This honor and opportunity to serve the SBA gave BVC considerable insight into the valuation needs and concerns of the private equity market.
5.
Strong Leadership: Founded over a decade ago by Ron Everett, a valuation expert with more than 27 years of experience, BVC’s executive committee has now grown to include two other key players in the valuation industry who are guiding the direction of the firm:
- Ray Ghelardi: A founder and former owner of one of the largest valuation firms in the country, with over 30 years of experience dealing with complex corporate valuation issues in many industries, and
- Jeff Hooke: A former Wall Street investment banker who “wrote the book” on valuation that is now required reading in the most prestigious Ivy League business schools.
6.
Our Primary Mission: BVC’s primary mission is to provide focused valuation expertise to the companies and industries driving the Innovation Economy, from startups seeking new investors to mature, private companies contemplating an exit strategy.
Recognized Expertise: BVC was appointed for 5 years as the primary valuation advisor to the Small Business Administration in managing a $24 billion private equity portfolio involving over 400 private equity funds. In addition to valuing over 1,500 companies for the SBA, BVC was also selected to conduct an independent review and author a report on the SBA’s Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) valuation guidelines. Nearly all of BVC’s recommendations were adopted by the SBA, recognizing BVC as an unparalleled business valuation authority in the U.S. on private equity valuation—having literally re-written and modernized the valuation standards used by the federal government itself.
7.
Industry Pioneers: Working with startups during the earliest days of the dot-com boom, BVC was the first valuation firm to derive an industry acceptable methodology to value early stage Internet companies for IPO (Initial Public Offering) purposes. Having now performed business valuations on over 5,000 companies, including some of the most recognizable technology brands in the world, BVC has become the preferred provider of specialized, complex valuation services for companies operating in the Innovation Economy.
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“Valuation” is the general word used to describe the action of analyzing something in order to determine its value in the marketplace.
Over the years, acceptable appraisal methodologies have been developed and approved by the valuation industry, including The Appraisal Foundation, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), to determine the fair value of any company, financial security or business asset. Due to the wide variety of companies, industries, securities and asset types, valuation methodologies are varied and can be quite complex. Valuation methods have evolved with the growing complexity of the economy and are now required and relied upon in nearly every major business decision that takes place, whether in the form of a solvency or fairness opinion for a large transaction or simply the gifting of stock in a private business for estate planning purposes.
We’re objective, credible and battle tested.
Our opinions have always withstood the scrutiny of adversarial third parties such as the IRS, a disillusioned shareholder or an angry partner bent on litigation. Above all, we’re ethical, fair and we pride ourselves on communicating our opinions with authority that is recognized by all the major players in the market. We do the job right.
Our Unique Method And Approach
BVC performs in-depth research and analyses of companies, securities and business assets to form expert opinions regarding their fair value. Using appropriately recognized valuation methods, they formulate an estimated opinion of the market value of a company, security or business asset. BVC then creates detailed reports demonstrating the applicable methods, data and other documentation used to arrive at and support their conclusions. Their reports are used in a number of ways, including:
- Determining an accurate sales or purchase price of a company
- Financial reporting to the IRS or other government regulatory bodies
- Legal support and expert testimony in court
- Objective assessment of the actual solvency of a company or the fairness of major corporate financial transactions
- Complex or high-profile business valuations related to IRS tax code requirements
- Computing the true value of stock or equity in a company paid as compensation
- Fulfilling the complex valuation requirements of private equity funds—both for the fund itself as well as the companies in its portfolio
- Valuing companies in relation to the creation or maintenance of Employee Stock Ownership Plans
- Reporting, valuations and expert testimony regarding companies in bankruptcy or other insolvency situations
- Determining the value of intangible assets such as copyrights, patents, brand value, customer contracts and supplier relationships
- Appraising the value of companies in order to raise financing for operations or expansion—either through loans or investors
- “Exit planning” to help business owners increase the eventual selling price of their company
What drives economic growth in today’s knowledge-based economy is not capital accumulation, but innovation. The U.S. economy developed an array of new technologies, particularly information technologies, and used them widely. So has every other country that has achieved true influence in our world: Germany, Japan, China and others.
The focus on “innovation economics” is the study of how companies create new forms of production, products and business models to expand wealth and quality of life. BVC’s growth as a valuation firm has paralleled the rise of the Innovation Economy and our significant experience with technology companies reflects this major trend. Performing valuations in this arena is what we do best.
The major changes in the U.S. economy of the last 15 years have occurred not because the economy accumulated more capital to invest in even bigger steel mills or car factories; rather they have occurred because of innovation.
BVC provides expert advice to help innovation-driven CEOs and business owners make the right decisions about the direction of their companies into the future.
When you’re dealing with significant capital investment and years of sweat equity, you can’t afford to make a mistake regarding questions of value as these lead to important decisions which hinge totally on what an asset is truly worth – today and tomorrow.
BVC’s staff is composed of some of the nation’s leading authorities in the field of valuation services. We are recognized as one of the most knowledgeable firms in the United States in the technology marketplace — innovation-driven industries such as information technology, life sciences and the world of venture capital and private equity. No matter what issue or challenge you are facing, we’ve probably seen it before and know exactly how to achieve the best outcome for you and your company.
CEOs and business owners in America are continually overwhelmed with financial regulations. They must report on every aspect of their business to the federal government and have to keep meticulous records for investors and a myriad of other stakeholders.
Laws have been set up over many decades to prevent unfair or unethical dealings within companies.
Regardless of whether these regulations reflect good or bad public policy, they put a tremendous burden on CEOs, investors and business owners to provide accurate reporting about their company. Because there are so many different types of regulations, there are a staggering number of reports which must be provided by a company at each stage of its development.
We use highly-specialized methods to research and analyze companies, and the markets and industries in which they operate, to determine an estimate of “fair value.” We then create reports detailing exactly how we arrived at our conclusions.
These reports are reviewed and relied on by:
- the courts to decide monetary awards,
- the Securities and Exchange Commission for financial reporting purposes,
- the IRS for gifting stock and making charitable contributions,
- the SBA for investment and loan decisions, as well as
- many of the leading banks, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and CitiBank, for financing mergers and acquisitions, ESOPs and corporate recapitalizations.
For all of these critical decisions and important transactions, we provide independent, authoritative and objective opinions of value which are trusted and have withstood the highest levels of scrutiny by “Big Four” audit firms, as well as the SEC, SBA, IRS, DOL, DOA, DOJ and other government regulatory agencies.
As a CEO or business owner, throughout your career you will repeatedly find yourself in need of expert advice in the field of financial reporting and business valuation. We have decades of experience in the most complex reporting requirements for the needs of innovative, high tech companies. If you have a problem, it’s most likely we have seen it before and know how to solve it better, faster, cheaper. We welcome any questions you may have.