My neighbor asked me, "Why would anyone sell a successful company?". He could not understand why anyone would leave a business that was doing well. Of course successful companies get sold all the time.

So why do these business owners sell? The short answer is that most closely held businesses sell for human reasons, such as burn out, retirement, illness, partnership disputes, family issues or other personal reasons. Usually the business is fine but the human being running the business needs a change. To understand this better it is key to understand the other options for exiting a business.

Close the Business/Liquidation

Closing a business that is profitable never makes sense. Even if the assets are liquidated the price is likely to be pennies on the dollar versus selling the business as a going concern with employees, customers and a reputation that is intact. Not only does the business owner get the lowest value but the employees, vendors and customers are hurt by this type of exit.

Accident, Illness or Death

No one wants to exit their business this way, but many do. The loss of an owner not only creates tremendous issues for the family but also creates a leadership void in the business. Even the most competent management can struggle when a key business leader is lost to a serious accident, illness or death. No one plans for this type of exit but many end up exiting the business this way because they failed to create an alternate plan.

Succession

Succession by a family member or key employee has its benefits. They know the business, its product or service, employees, customers and vendors. Succession can be operationally successful for the exiting owner if they make sure the successor is carefully selected, qualified and groomed for the position. The owner must be careful not to make an emotional choice of a relative or favorite employee but instead choose the successor with the right skills to lead the company into the future. You are not seeking an "Employee" mentality but an "Owner" mentality. If that rare person can be found in the business who can make the transition to Owner, they often do not have the cash needed to purchase the business. They are also likely to want to pay less for the business as familiarity will blind them to many of the value drivers of the company. So although succession can be operationally successful it is rarely a financial success for the outgoing owner.

Sell

Closing or liquidating the business minimizes the value to the owner. Accident, illness or death forces the issue on the owner. Succession provided a very limited pool of options with limited financial reward.

Selling on the other hand allows the business owner to decide their ideal timing, maximize the value of the business they worked so hard to build, coordinate the use of the sale proceeds for financial planning and align their personal goals with the sale of a business. Selling the business allows the business owner to create a wealth event and often significant on-going passive income without having to run their business.

Whatever they are, human reasons are always pushing and pulling on a business owner. Burn out, stress, divorce, illness, partner disputes and limited growth capital are some of the human reasons that push owners out of the business. Retirement, enjoying life, relocating, a new business opportunity and passive income are some of the reasons that pull a business owner out. Whatever the motivation, the fundamental reason a business owner chooses a sale as their ideal exit plan is control. The business owner chooses to understand the value of their business and to proactively pursue the right buyer and the right price. By selling a business you choose to exit your business by choice, not by force.

WASHINGTON – Prices at the wholesale level plunged in February by the largest amount in seven months as a big drop in energy prices offset higher food costs.

The Labor Department said Wednesday that wholesale inflation dropped 0.6 percent in February, much larger than the 0.2 percent decline economists had expected. Excluding food and energy, prices edged up a slight 0.1 percent, in line with expectations.

The deep recession and weak economic rebound are keeping inflation at bay and giving the Federal Reserve leeway to maintain record low interest rates in an effort to build momentum from stronger economic growth.

While overall wholesale prices have risen 4.4 percent over the past 12 months, core inflation, which excludes energy and food, is up a much more subdued 1 percent over the past year.

The 0.6 percent fall in Labor's Producer Price Index was the biggest decline since a 1.2 percent drop last July. In January, wholesale prices had surged by 1.4 percent, driven higher by rising energy costs.

Last month, energy prices plunged by 2.9 percent with most of that decline reflecting a 7.4 percent drop in gasoline costs.

However, gasoline pump prices have resumed rising over the past few weeks and now stand at a national average of $2.79 according to automotive club AAA's daily fuel gauge. That is up from $2.62 a month ago and $1.91 a year ago.

The PPI report showed food costs rising by 0.4 percent in February, the fifth straight monthly gain. The food increase last month reflected big price gains for fresh vegetables, eggs and meat.

Outside of food and energy, the price for new cars rose 0.5 percent, the largest advance since June, while the price of carpets and rugs increased 1.6 percent, the biggest advance since last April.

The government will report on consumer prices Thursday. Economists are expecting that report to also show subdued inflation with both overall retail prices and core prices rising by just 0.1 percent.

The country's worst recession since the 1930s has kept a lid on prices, allowing the Federal Reserve to keep a key interest rate at a record low of zero to 0.25 percent for the past 15 months in an effort to jump-start economic growth.

The Fed concluded its latest meeting on Tuesday by leaving its federal funds rate unchanged and declaring once again that it planned to keep rates "exceptionally low" for an "extended period" of time.

Most economists believe the Fed will leave rates unchanged until the unemployment rate, currently at 9.7 percent, begins to come down on a sustained basis, something they don't think will occur until this summer.

In a statement at the conclusion of Tuesday's meeting, Fed policymakers said they believed that "inflation is likely to be subdued for some time."

Microsoft will discontinue development of its midmarket-focused Windows Essential Business Server (EBS), the company said Friday.

"This decision not to ship future versions of EBS does not come lightly and will not impact any other Windows Server products and solutions, including the next version of Windows Small Business Server (SBS)," the company wrote in a blog post announcing the decision.

The company attributed the decision to changing market requirements. Microsoft first began talking about the server, which was code-named "Centro," four years ago, citing a need among midsize companies with about 75 to 300 users and only a few IT professionals on staff for an integrated bundle of easy-to-manage-and-install server products. It was also billed as a strong fit for partners who could help midsize firms with installation and customization similar to partners' substantial business opportunity with SBS

The first and, with Friday's announcement, only release of EBS launched in November 2008, just as the depth of the financial crisis and the potential scope of the current recession were both becoming clear and decimating spending on IT and everything else.

Microsoft's EBS team didn't refer to the recession directly in its blog entry, but wrote, "Since the launch of EBS, several changes have occurred that drove our decision to streamline our server product portfolio. [M]idsize businesses are rapidly turning to technologies such as management, virtualization and cloud computing as a means to cut costs, improve efficiency and increase competitiveness. Those capabilities are already available through other offerings, including Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center and Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS)."

EBS was delivered in two packages. The standard version included three Windows Server 2008 licenses for:

• a management server for networking, Active Directory, file and print, and System Center Essentials 2007;
• a messaging server with Exchange Server 2007 and Forefront Security for Exchange Server; and
• a security server with Forefront Threat Management Gateway for Medium Business.

A premium edition added a database server with Windows Server 2008 and the standard edition of SQL Server 2008.

Availability and development of the product will end on June 30, with the close of Microsoft's fiscal year. Between then and Dec. 31, current EBS 2008 customers can get the individual component software from the EBS 2008 suite for free, the company said. Support for EBS will depend on the individual product components, according to the Microsoft Product Support Lifecycle page.

In the EBS blog posting, the company said employees on the EBS product development team will be moving to other positions in the Microsoft Server and Cloud division.

John Endter, president of E Squared C LLC, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Minden, Nev., said that despite his early enthusiasm for the product, his company never found the right client for a deployment of EBS. While Endter felt that EBS' unfortunate economic timing didn't help, he said the idea of the complete infrastructure rip-and-replace that EBS required was, and still is, an impediment for midmarket customers.

"It was a great product from the standpoint of the integration and making all the systems play together, but the potential disruption to a business was, I think, too high of a risk for a lot of companies to actually go forward with it," Endter said.

"The fact that Microsoft is discontinuing EBS is not a surprise to me because they saw the same thing that I did. Customers said, 'You want me to do what with all of my servers? We'll do one at a time,'" he said.

The best midmarket opportunities right now for E Squared C involve virtualization projects combined with server upgrades. "Server virtualization is a key thing right now," Endter said. "A midmarket company may have five or six servers. We're taking those and virtualizing those down to two physical boxes. At the same time as we're virtualizing, we're doing things like upgrading from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 or 2010. Or it might involve upgrading Domain Controllers from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008."