Gerald Henseler An Acquiring Mind

"By today's standards, we exercised an inordinate amount of patience. The main thing was not to be threatening and to show that we did appreciate their style."

Henseler doesn't think it would be possible to take a similar approach in the current M&A environment. "The process has become much more formalized, and a great deal more competitive," he points out. "Acquisitions now are primarily made via auction in a competitive bid process that has increased the multiple of annual sales you have to pay for a company. This was especially true in the mid to late 1990s, when the multiples hit seven times EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization). You have to cut costs as much and as soon as you can to justify that kind of price."