Are you searching for experienced California or San Diego business or mergers and acquisitions transaction attorneys?  Business across California continues to grow at an accelerated rate.  Commercial and residential real estate markets have experienced tremendous appreciation over the past several years.  Purchase and sale transactions often happen quite quickly.  You need a legal partner with the legal skill and responsiveness required to protect your interests, structure the transaction or review documents in this competitive environment.

The value of businesses and real estate in San Diego and Southern California is one of the highest in the nation.  There are substantial amounts of money at risk.  There are always issues associated with these deals and you need proven and experienced mergers and acquisition transaction attorneys who will protect your interests while maximizing the strength and profitability of your position.

The Watkins firm has represented business owners, investors, landowners, developers, healthcare companies and high tech startups and mid-size corporations in San Diego and across California as mergers and acquisitions transaction attorneys for more than four decades.  You need an attorney who will watch over and protect your best interests while understanding the “nature of the deal” and the relationships between the parties.  We have helped our clients to successfully complete an asset purchase or stock purchase acquisitions in almost every form of business or real estate transaction conceivable.

There is no such thing as a simple business transaction in California.  You need the experienced and proven mergers and acquisitions transaction attorneys at the Watkins Firm to protect your interests, review contracts and closing statements and ensure your transaction is properly structured and completed in an efficient and timely manner.

Pro-Tip: “What are the risks of an asset purchase? The most obvious is not getting what you paid for. Here’s a good example: We had a client come to us. They bought a company from the owner, who had been in business for 15 years, successful company. And two years later, the owner had opened up the same exact business within a mile of the location of this business and was trying to take away all the Goodwill, although this specific issues was already in the original purchase agreement. That’s the biggest one I see. And that’s the one we try to write the strongest clauses against, because it’s just really, it’s basically stealing.

What’s the difference primarily between an asset purchase and a stock purchase? An asset purchase is leaving the corporate or limited liability company, entity alone. They don’t want it. They don’t want to have control. They don’t want to vote in it. They just want to have nothing to do with that company, the buyer is simply interested in part or all of their assets. In stock purchases, you buy a majority interest in, or all of the stock in a company.  Your acquiring the company itself, not just some of its assets.  For example, you want to acquire all the stock in a company where you want to keep the corporation going or keep the LLC going and maybe keep some key employees.  You’ll probably want to keep existing stock incentives going forward. The acquisitions target has employees that have been there a long time. They have a vested interest in seeing that corporation go forward. So you might want to do a stock transaction to preserve all of those key existing pieces.

The spectrum on mergers and acquisitions also includes a whole bunch of joint venture possibilities. You can have management agreements, you can have service agreements involved. You also have to have new transactions with all the vendors that you want to keep. You have to have permission to get rid of some of the vendors that you don’t want anymore and key employee agreements. So these things can get rather complex because sometimes you need the owner or the primary owner to stay on board to make the transaction work and you have to hire them. And they get paid for an employment contract for three years and they have certain requirements of effort and Goodwill and good faith. Yes, these transactions are often really complicated.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

If you are considering a sale or acquisition and are searching for experienced and proven mergers and acquisitions transaction attorneys we invite you to review our podcast Episode 13 – Mergers and Acquisitions as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.