Crain's Cleveland Business

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6/17/2011

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$2.00/JUNE 20 - 26, 2011

Company valuations rebound Partners LLC had set. The business owner’s reaction? “Elation,” said Ralph M. Della Ratta Jr., managing director of the Cleveland firm that advised on the sale, who was quite happy himself. The news here isn’t that one company drew a higher price than it would have two or three years ago. It’s that many companies are. Though serial entrepreneur Dan T. Moore said he couldn’t divulge

Strategic buyers, private equity outfits flush with cash generate M&A activity FILE PHOTO/RUGGERO FATICA

Ellis Yan, CEO of Technical Consumer Products Inc. of Aurora

TCP lights up with potential for growth

By MICHELLE PARK mpark@crain.com

Not even an investment banker with 25 years of experience expected this. A first-quarter auction of a middle-

market Ohio company drew 21 bids and ultimately in April snagged roughly $50 million — a price 10 times the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBIDTA) and beyond the range Western Reserve

Aurora firm to expand compact fluorescent line

price or profits, he said he and other investors were surprised by the price they attained when they sold the Cleveland company, Flow Polymers, in late 2010 to a Chicago private equity firm. “It was higher than we thought it would be,” said Mr. Moore, president of Dan T. Moore Co., a business incubator. “You’re seeing a lot of high prices. See DEALS Page 17

ACCOUNTING HIRES ADD UP

By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com

Ellis Yan wants his light bulbs to replace Thomas Edison’s. Mr. Yan, CEO of Technical Consumer Products Inc. of Aurora, said he has spent the past four years preparing for 2012, when the federal government will begin phasing in a ban on traditional incandescent light bulbs. Starting Jan. 1 it will be illegal for companies to make or import 100watt bulbs. The same thing happens to 75-watt bulbs on Jan. 1, 2013, and 40- and 60-watt bulbs will join them on the banned list a year after that. Mr. Yan wants to make sure consumers replace many of those bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps made by TCP, one of the world’s biggest CFL manufacturers. Hence, ever since the federal government passed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, he has been ramping up his company’s

Local businesses replenish staffing levels after recent years of industry tumult By MICHELLE PARK mpark@crain.com

T

he bloodbath is over. After a period of more accounting firm layoffs than one industry consultant can remember in decades, CPA firms are back in hiring mode. Ernst & Young LLP, one of the big four accounting firms, has hired more than 100 in Northeast Ohio in the last 12 months — an increase of about 10% for the market — and expects to add another 100 over the next year, said Lee Thomas, who becomes Cleveland office managing partner in December when Northeast Ohio managing partner Don Misheff retires. (Simultaneously, Ed Eliopoulos will become Akron office managing partner.) The firm’s three-figure hiring follows three years of reduced hiring, Mr. Thomas noted.

See LIGHT Page 5

INSIDE Laying down the law

See HIRE Page 6

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Nationally recognized legal scholar Lawrence E. Mitchell on June 1 became the first non-interim dean at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law since 2008, and he is motivated by the opportunity. Read Michelle Park’s story on Page 3.

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EDUCATION Fostering close relationships with alumni key part of prep and parochial schools’ mission ■ Page 11 PLUS: CAMPUS IMPROVEMENTS ■ GIRL POWER ■ & MORE

Entire contents © 2011 by Crain Communications Inc. Vol. 32, No. 25


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