What happens to Corp Dev team after portco is sold?

Work at a $1B+ portco that primarily grows inorganically through acquisition, and when I was hired the corpdev team reassured me that when the company sells in a couple years, the next PE firm will likely keep us around because our M&A process is a big part of what the next buyer is acquiring.

Not sure how much of this was just BS to get me to sign the offer. Any insight from folks who have actually been on a CD team at the time of a portco exit?

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They're right. If you're selling a consolidator, you need to get buyers to focus on the "machine," not the underlying assets (which will be comparatively small and low-quality). This company is going to be emphasizing how it has a playbook to reliably find deals, acquire them off-market/at good prices/etc., and then uplevel the acquired assets. Having a team that has done this for years is massively de-risking for the subsequent financial sponsor, and there's no rationale to firing everybody. 

If you sell to a strategic, higher probability you get cut, unless you're a large and distinct enough division to operate with high independence. 

 

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