Buy-Outs in Family Businesses

In recent years, buy-outs have become an increasingly frequent solution to succession problems in family businesses. Despite a dramatic surge in the number and total volume of these transactions, their consequences for the bought-out companies are yet poorly understood.

Considering this background, Oliver Klöckner investigates the changes resulting from buy-outs in family businesses in the areas of corporate governance, instruments of managerial control, and financial practices. A comprehensive literature review contrasts the characteristics of family businesses with those of non-family businesses after a buy-out. This theoretical discussion is complemented by an in-depth analysis of 17 bought-out family businesses in Germany. The detailed analysis reveals a multitude of changes, which can be subsumed under three main effects: First, companies are professionalized. Second, corporate processes are more directed towards economic goals, i.e. economized. Third, agency conflicts arising from the separation of ownership and management are reduced.