Serial entrepreneur Jeroen Derwort successfully sold his businesses twice in quick succession. One time with a financieel adviseur, the other time with only a legal adviser. "You often know the market yourself best, after all.
Jeroen Derwort had almost sold his business in 2014 when American computer game giant Zynga showed up on his doorstep totally unexpectedly. At first, he did not realize that Zynga was interested in a takeover when it entered Gamebasics' development studio in Zoetermeer. But soon after the high-profile visit, it became clear that the Americans wanted to take over the business.
At the time, they had more than $50 million to spare for the developer of Online Soccer Manager (OSM) and had big plans for the computer game. Derwort: "They wanted to make it bigger than soccer simulation game FIFA, and of course that appealed to us. In haste, Gamebasics - OSM's parent company - hired a financial adviser to manage the process. But that didn't turn out to be a success, and so no deal was reached.
According to Derwort, the fact that the takeover by Zynga ultimately did not go through had mainly to do with an unfortunate confluence of circumstances. In the first place, according to him, it was because the Zynga management responsible for the takeover changed shortly afterwards. Second, it was because there was no click from Zynga with Gamebasics' financieel adviseur.
Derwort: "If our financieel adviseur sent an extensive email, he got a very short answer back. It just didn't click between them and Zynga. And what also didn't help was that the financieel adviseur we had at the time didn't have any experience doing deals with Americans either.'
No rocket science
In the end, it took almost seven years before the business was still sold to Swiss company Miniclip at the end of 2020. Then, too, a financieel adviseur was hired to oversee the takeover process. But a different one. That was Rembrandt M&A, which was legally assisted by JB Law. They did manage to close the deal and still sell the business for tens of millions of euros.
Derwort: 'Although they had no experience with game companies, Rembrandt M&A did a very solid job and helped us well in the negotiations. What also made a difference was that the then CEO of Miniclip was Dutch, Jurgen Post. That, of course, made talking a lot easier.'
Selling your business is not rocket science, Derwort previously wrote on his own website. According to him, you just have to have the tide with you and that means, among other things, that all noses have to be in the same direction (in the case of Gamebasics there were also several shareholders besides Derwort, editors). Derwort: "What can also be very frustrating when there is a takeover process is that you are not the one in control.
Exit as a goal
Wanting to stay more involved in the background at Gamebasics and Online Soccer Manager as the business grew and feeling that his role as an entrepreneur had actually come to an end, he decided back in 2017 to join RosterBuster as CTO. This is a startup that has developed an app for airline and cabin crew (pilots, pursers and flight attendants) and aims to optimize workflow for this professional group. At that time, he also becomes a shareholder in the business with customers such as KLM, Emirates and EasyJet.
Unlike at Gamebasics, selling the business here was the goal from the outset. This time, however, it was decided not to engage a financieel adviseur. Derwort: "I already knew how things were going and we had already drawn up a list of potential buyers. And then of course it was easy to approach them yourself via LinkedIn or by e-mail. You often know the market better than a financieel adviseur. So you don't need another one right away.
Moreover, it was a smaller and much less complex deal, where the overhead of a large M&A firm did not fit. Therefore, a law firm sufficed and they hired Van Benthem & Keulen in the sale of RosterBuster. "They helped us tremendously with the legal structuring of the deal.
Also, the potential buyer was actually known in advance, so a process in which an information memorandum had to be drawn up and several buyers approached, as was the case with Gamebasics, was also unnecessary. In the end, RosterBuster was sold in 2021 to Canadian Aviation Electronics (CAE), the world's largest pilot training company. Derwort: "Maybe not for the top price, but that wasn't possible at the time because the aviation sector had just gone through a deep slump because of corona.
Thought leadership
What Derwort wants to pass on to entrepreneurs who want to sell a business is that they should think carefully before going with an M&A firm. He has four concrete tips for entrepreneurs who want to sell a business and are considering hiring an M&A adviser:
- See if they have knowledge of the geography where you want to sell a business.
- See if they understand the sector in which you operate.
- Pick a bit of a reputable party that is known to the potential buyer, unless you think it will be a local deal.
- Hammer how good your business is through thought leadership. And so that means being distinctive and leading within your field.
Meanwhile, Derwort is, for as long as it lasts, entrepreneur finished. That's because he still has a family with young children, and after all those tropical years, he also wants to spend more time with his family. That's why he entered education and is Gamelab manager at The Hague University of Applied Sciences two days a week. He is also chairman of the Dutch Games Association. Furthermore, Derwort invests part of the capital he has accumulated by selling his businesses. And he is also still involved as an investor in a couple of startups: Breeze, a dating app, and PAL-V, a compact two-seater flying car.
Finally, he also wrote a book about everything he experienced with Online Soccer Manager titled Scoring!- Online Soccer Manager from attic room to skybox. By the way, he says that doesn't mean the fire as an IT entrepreneur is completely extinguished in Derwort. "I look carefully around me to see what else is happening, for example in the field of AI.
