I own a small business in the fire protection space, which was built by acquiring two smaller local competitors and integrating them. Both of these deals were self funded with personal equity.

I'm now in the very early stages of evaluating an acquisition target that is larger than we are. The target is also in the broader fire protection industry, but not the same niche or market (although both are on the west coast).

In this case there are likely some synergistic opportunities between the two businesses, so with that, the acquisition would have the potential to be accretive. Again, it's early stages so there's very low likelihood of getting anything over the finish line, but it does help illustrate general questions I have about this situation.

1.) I would need to bring on an equity partner to fund this deal, since I don't have the capital to close this deal on my own. Does anyone here have experience bringing on an equity partner to acquire a business that would, at least on some level, integrate with a business you already own?


2.) Would it make sense to pitch the investment as a package deal of the two companies (assuming there is accretive increase from the acquisition)? I'm fine with a smaller % of a bigger pie. Any thoughts on the mechanics here?

I know there are a million different nuances left out here, and that there's no one correct answer here. Just looking for some input from some of the more experienced folks here.

Thanks!