CIM
Confidential Information Memorandum
The detailed document describing the business, its financials, and its opportunity, provided to qualified buyers under NDA.
In a sale
What it changes in a sale
The CIM is where the story of the business is told in full, to buyers who have signed an NDA. It sets out the financials, the operations, and the opportunity, and it makes the case for the category a buyer should place the business in. A CIM that ties to the numbers a buyer will test later protects the price through diligence.
Where it comes up
Read it in context
In the articles
- Same business, two outcomesTwo identical businesses, one prepared and one not, sell for very different prices.
- An add-back is an argumentAdjusted EBITDA is built, not declared, and the buyer's accountants will rebuild it.
- When a buyer calls firstAn inbound offer is information, not a decision.
- Diligence yourself firstEvery business has issues. The question is who finds them.
- Strategic, platform, add-on, sponsor: who buys whatDifferent buyers pay for different things. The process should include several.
- What the buyer's memo says about youBefore any offer, someone writes an internal memo. Here is what is in it.
- Multiple entities, one storyFounders build in pieces. Buyers buy a whole.
In The FNDRS Playbook
See the terms with your own numbers
The Go-To-Market Analysis (GTMA) builds the file a buyer would build on your business, before a buyer does.