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.
If the employees are in their 60s and 70s, I highly doubt they will leave for a new job. They know they aren’t likely to get hired elsewhere due to their age. The owner may feel very guilty about that and that’s why he doesn’t want them to know about the sale.