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Ask HN: Where can I buy real software companies?

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Re: Ask HN: Where can I buy real software companies?

#131

Post by justincooke »

codegeek wrote: post #49
patio11 wrote: post #8

I sold Bingo Card Creator through FEI ( http://feinternational.com ) and have nothing but good things to say about them. Something like 20% of their listings are SaaS businesses. The going rate for a SaaS business is roughly 3X yearly SDC ("seller discretionary cashflow" -- revenue minus costs required to run the business as opposed to e.g. the owner's salary, distributions, interest expense, etc). It is closer to 2X…

Could just be me but it feels like feinternational always show a very inflated price. 3x seems too much specially for companies that are barely 1 year old. Also, it is extremely difficult to sign an NDA just to inquire more about a sale as feinternational does not give any details upfront. Totally understandable that the company in question wants to maintain its privacy, secrets etc but this is a difficult situation.…

When you're dealing with such small companies, they're usually pretty early in their market and might not have built up enough defensibility to share all of their information publicly. They'd rather limit disclosures to those who have taken some action to express interest.

Public listings increase the number of copycats the end buyer will have to deal with. This isn't much of an issue for a well-established company with significant market share, but it is for a young software company fighting it out with their other (early) competitors.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I buy real software companies?

#132

Post by tempestn »

I have no interest in selling in the near future, but I'm curious whether anyone in this thread has a sense of what kind of multiple an ad- and affiliate-supported site like www.autotempest.com would bring. It's not recurring revenue in terms of recurring billing like a SaaS, but revenue and user base are very highly correlated.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I buy real software companies?

#133

Post by binarray2000 »

trimble-alum wrote: post #98
lazyant wrote: post #34

(slightly OT) I don't understand Flippa; I've search several times for a regular web site making a bit of money and all of them look like scams, even the ones that are sold, with no PageRank since all the incoming links are spam.

Any decent marketplace for one-app or brand companies needs to prominently display intedependently-verifiable, evidence-based due-diligence metrics than can be dug into by your legal and forensic/tax accountant folks before a transaction. Saves lots of time. BTW: on apps, it is usually more profitable to license source code to games and similarly common apps (say for gyms, restaurants, etc.). If it's a FNAC app that…

Google search did't help, so I have to ask: What is a "FNAC app"? Thank you.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I buy real software companies?

#134

Post by shill »

dennisgorelik wrote: post #112
jacquesm wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advertising your business is for sale may bring unwanted attention too.

Could you give an example of such unwanted attention?

Customers/users abandoning a product when they learn it is for sale.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I buy real software companies?

#136

Post by oh_sigh »

bemmu wrote: post #117

Most businesses are for sale if the price is right. I've sold an app before where I just got a phone call from an interested party (without it being listed for sale anywhere), agreed on a price and just a few weeks later the transfer was complete. If anyone wants to buy candyjapan.com for 4x profit, feel free to contact.

4x daily profit?

Re: Ask HN: Where can I buy real software companies?

#137

Post by [deleted] »

patio11 wrote: post #13
bcjordan wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Patrick's talk at Microconf on selling Bingo Card Creator was fascinating—nice set of notes at http://doubleyouraudience.com/microconf/patio11/

I'll write about this more in the near future -- don't want to step on a Starfighter announcement coming up though.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Where can I buy real software companies?

#138

Post by veb »

bemmu wrote: post #117

Most businesses are for sale if the price is right. I've sold an app before where I just got a phone call from an interested party (without it being listed for sale anywhere), agreed on a price and just a few weeks later the transfer was complete. If anyone wants to buy candyjapan.com for 4x profit, feel free to contact.

I'd love to buy Candy Japan! But it doesn't make much sense for me, and I don't have the money to pay for it - but I would honestly put in an offer if the contacts/network for supplying the candy and such was well set up and going from your blog posts about your journey so far, that probably is the case.

Keep up the excellent work Bemmu! :-)

Re: Ask HN: Where can I buy real software companies?

#140

Post by biot »

binarray2000 wrote: post #133
trimble-alum wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any decent marketplace for one-app or brand companies needs to prominently display intedependently-verifiable, evidence-based due-diligence metrics than can be dug into by your legal and forensic/tax accountant folks before a transaction. Saves lots of time. BTW: on apps, it is usually more profitable to license source code to games and similarly common apps (say for gyms, restaurants, etc.). If it's a FNAC app that…

Google search did't help, so I have to ask: What is a "FNAC app"? Thank you.

Fart Noise Amplification Chamber: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=FNAC
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