Founded in 2003 by Peter Harrison and later joined by Michael Harrison, David Foy, and Mark Swaby, Affiliate Crew rapidly developed into a highly profitable leader in performance-based interactive marketing. Affiliate Crew built a scalable, technology-driven platform that enabled it to offer a diverse set of marketing services, such as website development, search marketing, and online lead generation. All of its services were offered on a pay-for-performance basis, allowing its customers to receive incremental revenue without risk or upfront costs. As the company experienced tremendous year over year growth, Affiliate Crew received intense interest from a variety of prospective investors and strategic acquirers throughout 2006 and 2007.
The Challenge
The four partners received an offer for the full sale of Affiliate Crew in early 2007. With the majority of their financial wealth tied up in the company, they realized that they had an opportunity to achieve lifetime financial security. Though they believed they had a fair offer on the table, they decided to explore other liquidity opportunities, and hired Arbor Advisors to test the market for a higher valuation in July 2007. They were attracted by Arbor's deep knowledge of the interactive marketing space, their negotiations expertise, and their ability to run a customized process to explore all possible transaction types - the sale of a minority, a majority, or 100% of their business.
The Solutions
In January 2008, a confidential buyer acquired TopColleges, a division of Affiliate Crew. The value of the partial sale exceeded what was offered to the partners for the full sale of the company in 2007.
Arbor Value Add
- Sold a division of the company, at a valuation that exceeded the partners' expectations on the full sale of Affiliate Crew
- Contacted over 100 potential strategic acquirers and financial partners while searching for the ideal partner
- Received three LOIs from potential investors and buyers
- Negotiated a transaction structure that met all of the Affiliate crew partners' interests
