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.
It’s normal for a seller not to want word to get out. If the sale falls through, they could be in a worse position of people knew they were trying to sell. That being said, you need to talk to the employees during the process. It won’t be the first thing in your due diligence checklist to get done, but it has to get done before you pay. Work with the seller to get him/her comfortable enough for you to interview the key employees