Casting a wide net: Bluefish's acquisition by Vodafone
Lyndon Knight , Co-Founder, Bluefish
- In 2012 Lyndon Knight sold his business to Vodafone. Hear the valuable lessons he learned along the way.

Selling a Business

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Selling a Business

Successful spin-outs
Chas Sims, Co-founder and Director, TTP

Identifying buyers
Andrew Harrington, Principal, AHV Associates

Assessing Value
Andrew Harrington, Principal, AHV Associates

Casting a wide net: Bluefish's acquisition by Vodafone
Lyndon Knight , Co-Founder, Bluefish
- In 2012 Lyndon Knight sold his business to Vodafone. Hear the valuable lessons he learned along the way.

Putting the vision before your ego - selling your business
Simon Schneider , General Manager of Grand Challenges, InnoCentive
- Simon Schneider at InnoCentive describes his experiences and what he have learnt from the acquisition between his company OmniCompete and InnoCentive.

The Editor - The Editor, Editor, Knowledge Peers

12 Feb 2013

Key points

Bluefish was sold to Vodafone in 2011. The company was approached by Ernst and Young on behalf of Vodafone, who wanted to find an IT Consulting Business that could help them expand their services globally.
Bluefish had previously been regularly approached by VCs and corporates regarding a potential investment. VCs provided an opportunity to gain sizeable money to invest in the business, but also required large chunks of equity to be given away. They provide investment, but also interference.
Lyndon was reluctant to relinquish control during the early growth stages. He believes that owners should grow and control the business, but then exit completely. Lyndon and his partners left with 100% of the business’ value when they sold to Vodafone.
The takeover process is stressful, with large companies possessing significant resources for takeovers. Lyndon led the sale from start to end, treating it as a full time job and surrounded himself with good advice and advisers.
Funding can be beneficial, but companies should be very careful about who they do business with. After a successful takeover, Bluefish has an exciting future, having already experienced significant growth. However Lyndon made sure to retain the company’s culture throughout the process.

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