Dartmouth Associates Inc.

"There are three faithful friends - an old wife, an old dog, and ready money."
-Benjamin Franklin

Dartmouth Associates, founded in 1984, has a litany of successes from transforming underperforming operations into profitable businesses even in tough times. We bring a unique mixture of common sense, hands-on experience and knowledge to helping our client’s solve their business problems.

We roll up our shirt sleeves and quickly get down to work in a granular analysis of each business process and asset, to fully understand the business at all levels, and create cash flow, profits and shareholder value for our clients. Our detailed operational focus isn't designed to be pretty or elegant for the outside world. It is functional, tough, laborious work, based on real experience of what actually works. Even more importantly, it is essential for business survival in tough competitive times.

Over the past 20 years, managing at 40,000 feet was acceptable but this won't cut it now in this reset economic world. Financial engineering and philosophizing is fun, but it won’t get the job done when you're fighting for every margin point in a tough market.

The reality for business survival and success today is not a matter of perspective; it is a matter of management’s granular understanding of how the business is performing in reality. You won't find us in the ivory tower, but you will find us with the sales team, in the order department, the engineering meeting, the warehouse, on the production line and in the account's receivable discussion. We just stay focused on the things that really matter to business success every day.

We are differentiated by our knowledge and practical experience of operational turnarounds in many underperforming companies and knowledge of capital markets. Our experience from owning and leading companies, solving real problems and building shareholder value, offers significant value to clients including our:

Practical operational management experience from all types of businesses across four continents
Real leadership experience, honed from the crucible of financial distress, making us a credible turnaround partner to lead company revitalization in times of crisis
Demonstrable success in creating & executing business strategies that deliver profitability and superior shareholder value
Deep financial markets knowledge and business networks
Character, persistence and integrity in our dealings

We can quickly assess business situations, create practical solutions and work with our clients to execute efficiently and get results. We measure our success from our client’s success. Our geographical focus is the Western US and Western Canada.

We don't deliver beautifully bound reports, we just deliver results!

Give us a call to initiate a confidential discussion on how we can help. Really!

In certain circumstances, we will also consider investing our own capital in situations where there is potential upside from us working alongside existing ownership and management. Our affiliated company, Dauntless Capital Partners, is a merchant bank and acts as a principal and investor in a range of public and private operating companies.

Merger & Acquisition Headlines

Wall Street opens higher as M&A heats up (Reuters)
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:45:49 Etc/GMT - Wall Street rose at the open on Wednesday as a slew of new corporate deals and a surge in bailed out U.S. financial stocks boosted investor sentiment.

Terra favoring CF over Yara in buyer battle (AP)
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:39:10 Etc/GMT - Fertilizer company Terra Industries said Wednesday its board favors a bid to be acquired by CF Industries instead of a previous agreement with Norway's Yara.

SC&H Capital Announces Acquisition of Damage Recovery Systems, Inc. by Leading Ridge Capital Partners (PR Newswire)
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:28:00 Etc/GMT - SC&H Capital, an investment banking and advisory firm to middle market businesses, served as the exclusive financial advisor to Leading Ridge Capital Partners in the acquisition of Damage Recovery Systems, Inc .

Montgomery & Co. Hires Paul DiNardo as Vice Chairman and Head of Technology Banking (Business Wire)
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:02:00 Etc/GMT - SANTA MONICA, Calif.----Montgomery & Co., LLC announced today that Paul DiNardo has joined the firm as Vice Chairman and Head of Technology Banking, and will lead the firm’s technology practice from its San Francisco office.