M&A
Mergers and acquisitions - a phrase that covers the process of buying, selling and merging businesses.
Management start-up (MSU)
A phrase used to describe a new business that has a clear management team and structure.
Management walk-out
When managers running a company, or a subsidiary, decide to find a role for themselves elsewhere as a team, possibly by starting their own business or carrying out an MBI. They have to be careful not to use any intellectual property belonging to their ex-employers without permission.
MBI (management buy-in)
Following the success of the MBO movement in the 1980s, MBIs developed as another means of changing the ownership of a business whose owners wish to sell. The incoming management team acquires the business with backing from institutional investors (as opposed to incumbent managers who acquire it in the case of an MBO). See also BIMBO.
MBO (management buy-out)
Basically, an MBO means that the management team of a business, usually with the backing of institutional investors, takes over ownership of the business where they are employed. MBOs emerged during the "enterprise" years of the 1980s as a major factor in restructuring British industry. Often, a large company hives off one of its subsidiaries by selling to its management team. Another source of MBOs is family businesses where the owner wishes to retire. (See also LMBOs, bought deals and back to basics). The acronym MBO has passed into other languages - you can see references to le MBO in the financial press in Paris.
MEBO (management and employee buy-out)
An MBO where a substantial number of employees as well as managers hold shares in the company.
Mezzanine (Later) Stage Investing
This is a term used to describe a type of debt arrangement commonly incorporated in buyouts. In most deals there are three financing components:
- standard debt
- mezzanine debt
- equity
Mittelstand
The collective name given to middle-sized companies in the German economy. Mittelstand manufacturers have achieved a formidable reputation for their world-beating high-quality products. Such companies - family-owned or management-owned - have provided a role model for some of the most ambitious British middle-sized businesses.
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