We are in the 11th hour of purchasing a small business. Throughout the due diligence process the seller has been hyper-paranoid about his employees (whom are in their 60s and 70s) catching wind of the sale, so we have had to access the property only after business hours. Even after the Purchase Agreement has been signed he is STILL very squirrely about his employees finding out. (1) is this normal? (2) any obvious red flags?
Note: seller is hands-off and remote. Employees operate the day-to-day.
I was a DJ at a popular restaurant/bar that was secretly sold. The previous owner still owns the property but had sold the business. The new family came in and the dad was introduced as the new “manager.” We all got to know him before figuring out the business had been sold. I think everyone stayed.