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The Challenges of Selling a Business During the Coronavirus Pandemic

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In the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, when mandatory lockdowns turned Canada’s largest cities into ghost towns, small business owners feared the worst.

As the year comes to a close, however, the situation has come to seem a little less dire. While plenty of businesses have had to close their doors for good, others have found ways to adapt to the new reality through delivery, curbside pickup, and other innovations that make it easy for customers to continue patronizing them in safe and responsible ways.

This has brought with it a certain amount of clarity. In some cases, the coronavirus shock has even provided business owners with an opportunity to have a realistic conversation about where they see themselves in five years.

This has led some Canadian business owners to start thinking about whether or not 2021 is the right time to sell to younger entrepreneurs who have the energy and vision to face the challenges of the contemporary market.

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How to Sell a Business in Canada

Selling a small business in Canada is a process that involves many steps. Business sales are regulated by the federal and provincial governments, and even if you already know the person you’re selling to, it’s a lot harder than simply handing over a set of keys and cashing a cheque — and if you don’t already have a buyer in mind, the process is even more complex.

In most cases, before a business sale can be closed, the following steps will be necessary:

  • Strategic planning to determine the right time to sell
  • Valuation of the company to determine current market value
  • Maximizing business value to improve leverage
  • Finding potential purchasers
  • Preparing confidential information pertaining to the sale
  • Structuring, pricing and negotiating the sale

To get through these steps requires a significant amount of professional and legal help which many small businesses simply don’t have in-house.

The Crucial Role of Business Brokers

Given all the complexities involved in selling a company, it’s no surprise that many business owners opt to work with Canadian business brokers who can help them navigate this complex process and arrive at a fair deal.

For example, brokerages like Beacon Mergers & Acquisitions specialize in divestiture, so if you want to sell your business in Toronto they can help you put it up on the market and negotiate with interested buyers.

Not only do the play a crucial role in connecting you with potential buyers in a confidential way, they can also screen buyers based on your own criteria, so you can be confident that you’re selling to an acceptable individual or business.

Even before the crisis hit, business sales were up in Canada according to the Globe and Mail. As Baby Boomers prepare for retirement and Millennials start eyeing opportunities to invest, it’s not surprising that successful companies are changing hands to make way for a new generation of entrepreneurs.

But given the complexities of the process, it’s important for those interested in selling to get the right advice before they start the process. If you’re considering divestiture, make sure to get in touch with Toronto business brokers who can help you negotiate the right deal.

 

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Dow Jones Rises But S&P, Nasdaq Fall; Nvidia, SMCI Flash Sell Signals As Bitcoin's Fourth Halving Arrives – Investor's Business Daily

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[unable to retrieve full-text content]

  1. Dow Jones Rises But S&P, Nasdaq Fall; Nvidia, SMCI Flash Sell Signals As Bitcoin’s Fourth Halving Arrives  Investor’s Business Daily
  2. Iran fires at apparent Israeli attack drones: Mideast tensions  The Associated Press
  3. S&P 500 extends losing streak to sixth day, Dow up 210 points  Yahoo Canada Finance
  4. Stock Market Today: Dow, S&P Live Updates for April 19  Bloomberg
  5. Stock market today: Wall Street limps toward its longest weekly losing streak since September  CityNews Kitchener

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Netflix stock sinks on disappointing revenue forecast, move to scrap membership metrics – Yahoo Canada Finance

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Netflix (NFLX) stock slid as much as 9.6% Friday after the company gave a second quarter revenue forecast that missed estimates and announced it would stop reporting quarterly subscriber metrics closely watched by Wall Street.

On Thursday, Netflix guided to second quarter revenue of $9.49 billion, a miss compared to consensus estimates of $9.51 billion.

The company said it will stop reporting quarterly membership numbers starting next year, along with average revenue per member, or ARM.

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“As we’ve evolved our pricing and plans from a single to multiple tiers with different price points depending on the country, each incremental paid membership has a very different business impact,” the company said.

Netflix reported first quarter earnings that beat across the board on Thursday, with another 9 million-plus subscribers added in the quarter.

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Subscriber additions of 9.3 million beat expectations of 4.8 million and followed the 13 million net additions the streamer added in the fourth quarter. The company added 1.7 million paying users in Q1 2023.

Revenue beat Bloomberg consensus estimates of $9.27 billion to hit $9.37 billion in the quarter, an increase of 14.8% compared to the same period last year as the streamer leaned on revenue initiatives like its crackdown on password-sharing and ad-supported tier, in addition to the recent price hikes on certain subscription plans.

Netflix’s stock has been on a tear in recent months, with shares currently trading near the high end of its 52-week range. Wall Street analysts had warned that high expectations heading into the print could serve as an inherent risk to the stock price.

Earnings per share (EPS) beat estimates in the quarter, with the company reporting EPS of $5.28, well above consensus expectations of $4.52 and nearly double the $2.88 EPS figure it reported in the year-ago period. Netflix guided to second quarter EPS of $4.68, ahead of consensus calls for $4.54.

Profitability metrics also came in strong, with operating margins sitting at 28.1% for the first quarter compared to 21% in the same period last year.

The company previously guided to full-year 2024 operating margins of 24% after the metric grew to 21% from 18% in 2023. Netflix expects margins to tick down slightly in Q2 to 26.6%.

Free cash flow came in at $2.14 billion in the quarter, above consensus calls of $1.9 billion.

Meanwhile, ARM ticked up 1% year over year — matching the fourth quarter results. Wall Street analysts expect ARM to pick up later this year as both the ad-tier impact and price hike effects take hold.

On the ads front, ad-tier memberships increased 65% quarter over quarter after rising nearly 70% sequentially in Q3 2023 and Q4 2023. The ads plan now accounts for over 40% of all Netflix sign-ups in the markets it’s offered in.

FILE PHOTO: Netflix reported first quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File PhotoFILE PHOTO: Netflix reported first quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo

Netflix reported first quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo (REUTERS / Reuters)

Alexandra Canal is a Senior Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X @allie_canal, LinkedIn, and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com.

For the latest earnings reports and analysis, earnings whispers and expectations, and company earnings news, click here

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

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Oil Prices Erase Gains as Iran Downplays Reports of Israeli Missile Attack – OilPrice.com

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Oil Prices Erase Gains as Iran Downplays Reports of Israeli Missile Attack | OilPrice.com



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Tsvetana Paraskova

Tsvetana Paraskova

Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. 

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  • Oil prices initially spiked on Friday due to unconfirmed reports of an Israeli missile strike on Iran.
  • Prices briefly reached above $90 per barrel before falling back as Iran denied the attack.
  • Iranian media reported activating their air defense systems, not an Israeli strike.

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Oil prices gave up nearly all of early Friday’s gains after an Iranian official told Reuters that there hadn’t been a missile attack against Iran.

Oil surged by as much as $3 per barrel in Asian trade early on Friday after a U.S. official told ABC News today that Israel launched missile strikes against Iran in the early morning hours today. After briefly spiking to above $90 per barrel early on Friday in Asian trade, Brent fell back to $87.10 per barrel in the morning in Europe.

The news was later confirmed by Iranian media, which said the country’s air defense system took down three drones over the city of Isfahan, according to Al Jazeera. Flights to three cities including Tehran and Isfahan were suspended, Iranian media also reported.

Israel’s retaliation for Iran’s missile strikes last week was seen by most as a guarantee of escalation of the Middle East conflict since Iran had warned Tel Aviv that if it retaliates, so will Tehran in its turn and that retaliation would be on a greater scale than the missile strikes from last week. These developments were naturally seen as strongly bullish for oil prices.

However, hours after unconfirmed reports of an Israeli attack first emerged, Reuters quoted an Iranian official as saying that there was no missile strike carried out against Iran. The explosions that were heard in the large Iranian city of Isfahan were the result of the activation of the air defense systems of Iran, the official told Reuters.

Overall, Iran appears to downplay the event, with most official comments and news reports not mentioning Israel, Reuters notes.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that “there is no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites,” confirming Iranian reports on the matter.

The Isfahan province is home to Iran’s nuclear site for uranium enrichment.

“Brent briefly soared back above $90 before reversing lower after Iranian media downplayed a retaliatory strike by Israel,” Saxo Bank said in a Friday note.

The $5 a barrel trading range in oil prices over the past week has been driven by traders attempting to “quantify the level of risk premium needed to reflect heightened tensions but with no impact on supply,” the bank said, adding “Expect prices to bid ahead of the weekend.”

At the time of writing Brent was trading at $87.34 and WTI at $83.14.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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