The Business Behind the Bright Lights of Broadcast News
“Mack McLaughlin owned FX Design Group for nearly 30 years. He sold to a group of employees prior to the Great Recession and eventually got the business back as they could not make a go of it. He eventually sold to a sub-contractor for all cash,” shares Sam Thompson a Minneapolis business broker and the president of M&A firm Transitions In Business. “In this episode we discuss selling as a stock sale versus asset sale and the benefits of buying the building you occupy.”
Mack McLaughlin spent nearly 30 years running FX Design Group—the company networks turn to when it’s time to refresh their set. From anchor desks to video walls, FX designed and built the sleek environments you see behind the scenes in broadcast news, sports, and corporate studios.
It was a glamorous product in a gritty business. Projects ran into the hundreds of thousands, but there was no recurring revenue, and the sales cycle was long. Still, Mack turned FX into a multimillion-dollar company—and eventually sold it for cash, with no earn-out.
In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, you discover how to:
- Turn a niche service into a strategic acquisition
- Replace yourself without tanking performance
- Use one number to manage through a downturn
- Convert a vendor relationship into an exit
- Decide when to sell vs. when to keep holding
- Structure a stock sale to get capital gains treatment
- Leverage owning your facility without becoming a landlord