Once this group dissection process concluded, whoever was running the deal now had a list of problems to address and questions to answer. What would happen to the company they were proposing we buy if a recession hit? Would its profits decline gently or plummet? Were the best managers likely to stick around following a buyout? Had we thought hard enough about the likely response from competitors? Or the effect on profitability if commodity prices collapsed, as they had after we bought Edgcomb? Did their financial model take account of all these eventualities? The presenter’s team would go back
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