Dallas–Fort Worth · Choosing an advisor
Who can help me sell a company in Plano to a national strategic buyer?
What national strategic buyers pay for, how their process differs, and how to keep one buyer from setting the terms alone.
By Michael D. Rubin, CEO & Founder · September 2026 · 914 words
MDR & Associates, a Dallas-Fort Worth M&A advisory firm based in neighboring Frisco, can help: it represents Plano owners and runs a competitive sale in which a national strategic buyer bids alongside private equity groups and other qualified buyers, so no single buyer sets the price. A strategic buyer is a company already in your industry, or next to it, that wants something you have: customers, a product line, a territory or a team.
Strategic buyers can pay well, because they expect savings and growth from combining with you. They can also be slow and demanding, and if they are a competitor, risky to let inside. The work is to capture the upside without the exposure.
Why a national strategic may pay more
A private equity group or an individual buyer values your company mainly on what it earns on its own. A strategic buyer may also count synergies: savings from combining purchasing, offices, systems or trucks, and extra revenue from selling its products to your customers or yours to its customers. When a buyer can see those gains, it can justify a higher price.
For companies in the $3 million to $100 million revenue range, prices most often fall between three and seven times adjusted EBITDA. EBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization; adjusted EBITDA adds back owner-specific and one-time costs. Synergies are one reason a buyer reaches toward the top of that range.
There is a catch. A strategic will not hand you the value of those synergies out of generosity. It shares them only when it believes another buyer might take the company first. That is why competition matters more than the size of the buyer.
How a strategic buyer's process differs
Strategic and financial buyers work in different ways, and knowing the difference helps you plan your time and your team. One term to know: rollover equity means keeping a minority stake in the company after the buyer takes control.
| National strategic buyer | Private equity group | |
|---|---|---|
| Who decides | Corporate development team, then senior executives or a board | The fund's investment committee |
| Speed | Often slower, with layers of internal approval | Often faster once interested |
| Diligence focus | Integration: systems, people, customers, contracts | Quality of earnings, management, growth plan |
| Your role after closing | Often a defined transition, then out | Often asked to stay and keep rollover equity |
| Main risk to you | Learning your secrets, then walking away | Heavy debt and deferred payment terms |
Protecting yourself when the buyer is a competitor
- Stage the disclosure. Share summary financials first. Hold back customer names, pricing and employee details until a letter of intent (LOI), the written offer that sets price and main terms, is signed, and release the most sensitive items late in due diligence.
- Use a strong NDA. The non-disclosure agreement should bar the buyer from soliciting your employees and customers, and your attorney should review it before anything is shared.
- Keep other buyers in play. A strategic that knows it is the only bidder has less reason to hold its price through diligence.
- Keep exclusivity short. Signing an LOI usually means agreeing not to talk to other buyers for a set time. Negotiate that period to be as short as the work allows.
- Ask about integration early. Where your people, brand and location fit in the buyer's plans affects both your employees and any part of the price tied to future results.
Getting national buyers to look at a Plano company
Plano has long been home to major corporate headquarters, and national companies already understand the North Texas market. That familiarity helps: a buyer does not need to be persuaded that the region is worth a presence, only that your company is the right way in.
In our process, every buyer, national or local, first sees a blind profile without your name. To learn more they register, sign a confidentiality agreement and complete a financial profile. We go to our own database of qualified individual buyers, capital groups and private equity groups first, and only then place blind ads on the major business-for-sale marketplaces if needed. A strategic that has already approached you goes through the same steps. The confidential marketing package, financial recast and professionally produced HD video give a corporate development team material it can circulate internally before anyone visits.
Comparing a strategic offer with the others
A strategic's offer may carry the highest headline price and still be the weaker deal. Look at how much is paid in cash at closing, how much depends on an earnout (part of the price paid later only if targets are met), how long you must stay, and how much protection the buyer wants against problems found after closing. Our guide to comparing offers walks through each item.
If a strategic has already contacted you with an offer, read how to evaluate an unsolicited offer before replying. The first number a buyer names when it has no competition is rarely its best.
Where MDR & Associates fits for a Plano owner
Our corporate office is in Frisco, a short drive from Plano; see our Plano page and the ten steps we follow. A principal of the firm is in every negotiation, several letters of intent are negotiated at the same time, and every offer is presented to you in person so you can accept, reject or counter. The fee is paid only if the company sells. Before you share anything with a strategic buyer, contact us for a free, confidential discovery meeting.
Where this fitsPlano business brokers and M&A advisors →