Brave Bison Share Price (BBSN)

Looks like Lord Ashcroft has further upped his stake to 23.7%!

Good post FG. Agree with what you are saying. The offer does feel opportunistic and clearly hasn’t gone down well. Much prefer a friendly takeover where management stay on and keep their clients on board. How many clients would stay if their key contacts left? Not a lot I suspect unless there was a lengthy handover and the takeover went smoothly. We also have to consider the debt that would be taken on which is large and would take some time to pay down even in the event that brave bison turned mission around. I won’t be particularly sad to see this one fall through and hope the board don’t get into a petty war.

Theo and Oliver Green have a history of building up a company and then selling it on which was one of the reasons for my investing here so they are obviously very clever business people so I hold my position...

Some serious and thoughtful thinking there FG...'smash and grab' Yes...'Cheeky' Yes...'Gung-ho' Yes...my first thoughts were NO! and don't raise the offer for goodness sake...

I've followed BBSN for 4+ years now, and have built a 2.5m shareholding. I like the story, and I like the Digital marketing space, in terms of its growth potential. I think that the management team here, to date, have done a great job of growing organically, whilst, at the same time, integrating bolt-on acquisitions which have delivered a full menu of capability into Brave Bison, and also brought some high profile corporate logos into the customer base. The business is profitable, and has a growing cash balance. So far, so good!

However in the context of achieving further growth, my experience is that there are no short cuts to building valuable customer relationships and developing enhanced service offerings. It takes time to do a proper job. You can't just slam companies together and expect the value to be retained.

Managing a £120m business is a very different beast to managing a £20m company.

The practicalities of a £20m agency, taking on and successfully integrating the customer accounts of a £100m agency comes with high risk of it becoming all consuming and destroying the value acquired, as well as the value already developed within the current business. It would be more normal to continue with a twin-track strategy of picking off new customer wins, ensuring that no customer relationships are lost from the current base, and to look for digestible bolt on acquisition opportunities that can be financed with a blend of Cash and issuing paper. Targeting growth of 30 - 50% per annum is ambitious enough, and will make for a very valuable business.

Traditional marketing agency businesses are built on developing hand-in glove relationships with your customers over a long period of time. Therefore the most successful acquisitions tend to be those which retain the management of the acquired business, to ensure that the customer relationships purchased are retained. Their interests need to be aligned with the new combined Group.

The dimensions and All-share nature of this deal feel a bit "smash-and-grab". Maybe a little opportunistic, on what I have read about TMG.

My vote would be to see BBSN grow within their means. Acquisitions should be affordable relative to cash balances available, and in terms of Management bandwidth that is available to go through the inevitable windy process of due diligence, engagement with the acquired customers, accommodating the new work force, and the integration of the business operations.

Biting off more than we can chew presents a high risk of damaging the development of what is still a fledgling business.

Don't let egos get in the driving seat of running the business.

FG