Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
Mark Ahlstrom, CEO, was still adjusting in December to new strictures since he sold WindLogics in September to FPL Group.
“They’ve been a little funky with us on SEC rules,” he says, referring to the Securities & Exchange Commission that governs public companies. FPL Group is the publicly traded holding company for Florida Power & Light, a large utility in Florida, and FPL Energy, an independent energy producer that owns nuclear plants, gas plants and wind plants. “They own a lot of wind. They have huge market share,” Ahlstrom says.
WindLogics, St. Paul, creates statistical models to predict where wind power can most efficiently be generated. FPL Energy was originally going to make a strategic investment. “They were a major customer of ours,” Ahlstrom says. They ended up buying the place, for undisclosed terms, on September 15.
“They want to use us a lot for internal optimization, and we wanted to be out in the market,” he says, advancing the expansion of wind power. “Since they’re the gorilla of the industry,” Ahlstrom says his company has to be careful about maintaining independence.
“We don’t ever report our other customers’ data back to them, because there are issues of confidentiality.” He says a lot of his time is spent beefing up confidentiality policies, and convincing customers that their data will be kept confidential.
The best windfall from the sale is they’ve gotten access to loads of data from FPL Energy’s wind power projects — something difficult to come by in a secretive industry, Ahlstrom says.
“We’re continuing to be run independently. We’re still a separate Delaware corporation, and I’m the CEO,” Ahlstrom says. The company employs 36 people and he plans to hire more.
And one final, pleasant change: “I don’t have to worry about making the payroll every week,” he says.
Mark Ahlstrom, WindLogics: 651.556.4262; ma**@********cs.com; www.windlogics.com; www.fplenergy.com
