Teaser

A teaser is an anonymised short profile of a company for sale. It is intended to raise the interest of potential buyers without disclosing the company's name. Only those who show serious interest and sign a confidentiality agreement receive more detailed materials. Its scope and content are deliberately brief: one to two pages with a general description of the business model, the sector, the region, the order of magnitude of revenue and earnings, the main strengths, the reason for the sale and the type of transaction offered.

Anonymisation is a balancing act, since the information must be meaningful enough to attract interest while allowing no inference about identity. For specialised niche providers that is precisely difficult, so wording and figures are deliberately kept imprecise. The purpose of anonymisation is to protect the ongoing business: if it becomes known that a company is for sale, customers, suppliers, lenders and employees can be unsettled and competitors may attack deliberately. The teaser is sent to the buyer list prepared in advance, and the response is also a first test of market interest. This stage determines how many serious interested parties the process reaches. At the same time it has to contain enough substance for a suitable party to recognise the opportunity and sign the confidentiality agreement.