Ann Zdansky

Benchmark International Successfully Facilitated the sale of the common source to the aureus group

Benchmark International facilitated the sale of The Common Source, located in Houston, Texas. They were acquired by the Aureus Group out of Colorado.

The Common Source, founded by Ann Zdansky in 1997, provides comprehensive information management services to legal firms through their proprietary document review platform. The Aureus Group is a tech focused company.

Benchmark International added value by negotiating, on the seller’s behalf, the most aggressive terms allowing the seller to retain assets that would not be used by the buyer moving forward. Also, negotiating an equity position for the seller and key employees in the new company was critical because it allowed all parties to participate in the upside and ensure that they had a say in the company post-closing. This also allowed the seller to remain on board in an advisory role in Aureus. The cultural fit was the number one priority. The Common Source was a very family friendly business and the employees were treated as family by the seller so it was important that a similar culture would continue post close.

The founder commented, “It was very important that we found someone that would continue the company. Not just come in and say that they were going to buy the company then come in a fire people and sell the equipment…and were just interested in our clients and list of potential clients. It had to be someone that was going to keep as much staff as possible and continue what was started. Benchmark was able to provide the buyer that met [these] needs…and to maintain the level of service for our customers was important as well.”

Senior Associate, Luis Vinals commented, “Benchmark International added value negotiating the asset deal. We saw throughout the deal process that the buyer, Aureus Tech, would acquire all the assets and not continue running a portion of the business that was not related to the existing services. With this knowledge, we were able to negotiate a deal that allowed the seller to retain assets related to a division that the buyer did not current operate or anticipate operating moving forward allowing the seller to obtain the best deal within the open market.”