Someone Wants to Buy My Business: What to Do Next

An email from a competitor's CEO. A call from a fund you have never heard of. A polite enquiry passed on through your accountant. However it arrives, the message is the same: someone wants to buy your business. It is flattering, a little destabilising, and it puts you in a situation most owners face once or twice in a lifetime, with no practice. The decisions you make in the first two weeks after an approach have a measurable effect on the price you eventually achieve, so this guide covers exactly those: what an approach means, what to say, what to hold back, and how to convert interest into a result instead of a discount.

What it means when someone wants to buy your business

Start by working out who is actually on the other side. Approaches come in a few flavours, and they deserve different responses:

• A strategic buyer. A competitor, supplier or company in an adjacent market. They usually know your business from the outside, they have a concrete reason to buy, and they can often pay the most, because your company is worth more combined with theirs.
• A financial buyer. A private equity firm, family office or individual investor. They buy for returns, they run disciplined processes, and their first offer is a starting position, never a ceiling.
• An aggregator or serial acquirer. Groups that buy many companies in one sector. Professional, fast, and very experienced at buying from first-time sellers. That experience gap is worth respecting.
• A broker fishing for mandates. Some "buyers" are intermediaries with no client behind them, writing to hundreds of owners to generate leads. A real buyer can say who they are, why your company, and how they would fund it. Ask early.

A credible approach also tells you something useful even if you never sell: your company is visible and attractive in its market. That information alone is worth having.

First rule: slow down and say very little

The natural reactions to an approach are enthusiasm and openness. Both are expensive. In the first conversation:

• Be polite and take the meeting or call. Refusing outright closes a door that costs nothing to keep open.
• Say nothing about price. If they ask what you want for the business, the honest answer is that you have not run a process and have no number to give. Naming a figure first either anchors the negotiation below what a process would achieve, or scares off a buyer with a number picked under pressure.
• Share no financials until a proper NDA is signed, and even then, share summaries before detail. Our guide on confidentiality and NDAs covers what a real NDA should contain.
• Ask questions instead of answering them: who is the buyer, why this company, what have they bought before, how would they fund it, what is their timeline.

Nothing about this is hostile. Serious buyers expect a considered counterparty, and they read composure as a sign the business is well run.

Why a single uncontested offer is usually a low offer

This is the core economics of your situation. A buyer who approaches you directly has chosen the timing, done their preparation, and knows there is no one bidding against them. You have done none of that. The result is predictable: an uncontested offer prices at the bottom of the realistic range, and the terms follow the same pattern, with more of the price deferred, a larger earn-out, and heavier warranties.

The buyer is behaving rationally. Paying more than necessary is a mistake they are paid to avoid. The correction has to come from your side, and it has one reliable form: competition, or at least the credible possibility of it.

How to respond without killing the interest

A practical sequence for the weeks after an approach:

1. Acknowledge and park. Thank them for the interest, signal that you are open to a conversation, and take two or three weeks before substantive talks. No serious buyer walks away because you asked for a fortnight.
2. Get your numbers in order. Work out your normalised profit and a realistic value range before you next speak. Our guide on how much your business is worth shows the arithmetic, and the valuation methods behind it.
3. Decide what you actually want. Sell fully, sell a stake, sell in two years after fixing known weaknesses, or keep the company. The offer arrived on the buyer's schedule. Whether to sell belongs on yours; the signs it is the right time to sell are a useful checklist.
4. Quietly widen the field. If you decide to engage, the strongest move is a discreet parallel approach to a small number of other credible buyers. The original bidder rarely leaves; they simply stop assuming they are alone. Two or three interested parties change both price and terms, and the mechanics of running that process are covered in how to sell a company in the UAE.
5. Bring in an advisor before the first substantive meeting. An advisor supplies the market view of value, runs the outreach without your name attached, and absorbs the negotiating friction so the relationship with the buyer stays constructive. What that involves is described in what an M&A advisor does.

Someone wants to buy into my business

A related situation with different mechanics: the approach is for a stake, a partnership, or an investment rather than the whole company. Partial deals can be excellent (growth capital, a strategic partner, de-risking your personal wealth) and they can also be a source of long-running conflict when the terms are vague. Before agreeing anything, be clear on valuation of the stake, governance rights, dividend policy and exit arrangements. Our guides on selling or buying shares in a UAE company and management buyouts cover the ground.

Frequently asked questions

Someone wants to buy my business. Should I tell them my price?

No. You have no process running and no market evidence, so any number you give is a guess that costs you money in one of two directions. Let the buyer make the first offer, and treat it as information, never as the answer.

How do I know if the offer is serious?

Serious buyers identify themselves fully, explain why your company specifically, show how the purchase would be funded, and accept an NDA without argument. Vague letters that could have been sent to a hundred companies, refusal to name the ultimate buyer, and pressure to see financials quickly are all signs you are dealing with a fishing expedition.

Who wants to buy my business?

In the UAE the usual buyers are regional trade acquirers looking for scale or market entry, international companies entering the Gulf, private equity and family offices, and increasingly serial acquirers consolidating fragmented sectors. Which of these your company attracts depends on size, sector and how transferable the business is without you.

Someone wants to buy into my business rather than buy it outright. Is that different?

Yes, materially. A partial sale makes the buyer your long-term partner, so governance terms matter as much as price: board rights, reserved matters, dividends and exit mechanics. Price the stake properly (control and minority positions carry different values) and put a shareholders' agreement in place before money moves.

Should I respond at all if I have no intention of selling?

A short, courteous reply keeps the door open and costs nothing. Markets change, and so do owners' plans. It is also worth knowing who is acquiring in your sector; today's rejected buyer is often the logical first call when you do decide to sell.

The takeaway

An unsolicited approach is leverage, if you treat it as the start of a process instead of the end of one. Say little, learn a lot, establish what the business is worth, and make the interested buyer compete, or at least believe they might have to. RV Capital advises owners across the UAE who have been approached by a buyer: we assess the offer against what the market would actually pay, and where the numbers justify it, we run the discreet process that turns one offer into a strong one. If an approach has landed on your desk, speak with us in confidence before your next conversation with the buyer.