Will You Sell-Out if You Sell?

The exit question is a troubling one for not-only-for-profits. If you sell your company, will the acquirer chuck your non-financial mission out the window?

At the Investors’ Circle conference in San Francisco yesterday, Pierre Ferrari, chairman of the board of Ben & Jerry’s, and  Judy Wicks, owner of the White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia, discussed different solutions to the problem, according to a rundown in Triple Pundit. In a highly controversial move, of course, founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield sold the company to food and personal products giant Unilever in 2000. For her part, Wicks sold the 20-year-old restaurant just this year, but with a novel approach:

But when the White Dog Café trademark and logo came up for renewal, she hatched a plan that would allow her to sell the company in a way she could live with. She sold the physical restaurant to a local restaurateur, but retains ownership of the White Dog Café name and logo, which she licenses to the new owner. The sale was also contingent on the buyer signing a social contract that binds him to a number of important business practices, such as continuing to buy local, ethically-grown food. The contract also stipulates that any additional café locations be developed in the Philadelphia area and that they be housed in buildings even more energy-efficient than the current restaurant, which is highly efficient and powered by renewable energy sources.
via A Conundrum for Social Entrepreneurs: Selling Your Company Without Selling Out – investors circle, white dog cafe, ben jerry, sell-out.

Whether you can attach all those strings to a contract with a corporation the likes of Unilever, however, is debatable. As important, is timing. In this environment, sellers aren’t likely to get a particularly good price anyway. While the topic is important, sellers would do better sitting tight and getting their house in order, so they’re in a better position when the market improves.