{"title": "IPOs, Mergers and Board Work | Petri Niemi | Negotiator 123", "titleOriginal": "Hallitustyö IPO & fuusio | Petri Niemi | Neuvottelija 123", "episodeNumber": "123", "guest": "Petri Niemi", "publishedAt": "2022-02-27", "duration": "48:34", "durationIso": "PT48M34S", "youtube": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVTcbjJ-KKw", "fiCanonical": "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/159-hallitustyo-ipo-fuusio-petri-niemi-neuvottelija-123", "originalLanguage": "fi", "format": "full", "topics": ["ma_exits", "saas_software", "ownership_capital_tax"], "description": "Petri Niemi has run seven listings and chaired the boards of most of those companies. He opens up why Siili Solutions was the case that opened Finland's First North, how Bilot dared to list in March 2020 into the teeth of the Covid crash, and what an anchor investor's thumbs-up actually buys. The conversation moves on to the Bilot–Vincit merger, still awaiting shareholder approval at the time of recording, and to why listing is worth it at all: owners in different cycles, a liquid share as acquisition currency, easier banking. It closes on the most common trap in software consultancies — products built by consultants on the bench — the one rule of board work, and the company he is proudest of.", "chapters": [{"t": "00:00", "title": "Petri Niemi: from CapMan to free radical", "seconds": 0}, {"t": "02:22", "title": "Siili Solutions opened the First North market", "seconds": 142}, {"t": "04:29", "title": "A small offering and five acquisitions paid in shares", "seconds": 269}, {"t": "05:12", "title": "Detection Technology and the Chinese factory", "seconds": 312}, {"t": "07:05", "title": "Vincit, the listing, and the share as a way of committing people", "seconds": 425}, {"t": "08:28", "title": "Bilot's IPO in the middle of the Covid crash", "seconds": 508}, {"t": "10:34", "title": "The anchor investors saved the offering", "seconds": 634}, {"t": "12:53", "title": "First North must not turn into crowdfunding", "seconds": 773}, {"t": "14:24", "title": "What Bilot actually does around SAP", "seconds": 864}, {"t": "15:34", "title": "Motley, and service design as the cherry on top", "seconds": 934}, {"t": "17:01", "title": "The Bilot–Vincit merger by share exchange", "seconds": 1021}, {"t": "19:12", "title": "A share exchange against a cash offer", "seconds": 1152}, {"t": "20:16", "title": "Synergies: an agile house meets large corporates", "seconds": 1216}, {"t": "23:06", "title": "Next Games and IP-based games", "seconds": 1386}, {"t": "24:08", "title": "Lounea, Finland's fastest builder of fibre", "seconds": 1448}, {"t": "27:07", "title": "Reselling Visma, and business services", "seconds": 1627}, {"t": "28:09", "title": "Loihde's technical listing, and why it limps", "seconds": 1689}, {"t": "29:35", "title": "When it would be worth Lounea listing", "seconds": 1775}, {"t": "31:27", "title": "Seven IPOs: when listing is the right path", "seconds": 1887}, {"t": "33:30", "title": "LeadDesk, an orthodox SaaS company", "seconds": 2010}, {"t": "34:44", "title": "Clausion and the move off the licence model, with its SaaS trough", "seconds": 2084}, {"t": "36:34", "title": "The myth of a consultancy's little products", "seconds": 2194}, {"t": "38:54", "title": "How a board is built before a listing", "seconds": 2334}, {"t": "42:44", "title": "The chair runs the board, the chief executive runs the company", "seconds": 2564}, {"t": "46:19", "title": "ICEYE, the satellite company Niemi is proudest of", "seconds": 2779}], "sourceTranscriptType": "none", "subtitleMethod": "none", "provenance": "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and the publisher's own chapter marks, translated one for one. The marks are genuine: twenty-five of them, with gaps from 43 to over 200 seconds, tracking the recording rather than a grid. No transcript is published here — the channel has no English caption track for this episode and the Finnish one is YouTube's automatic track. The guest chairs or has chaired the boards of most of the listed companies he discusses by name, and the Bilot–Vincit merger was awaiting shareholder approval when this was recorded, so the episode discusses a live transaction from one side. Nothing in it is investment advice, and the company assessments are those of February 2022.", "coreTheses": ["The anchor investor's value is the signal, not the money: the offering is decided by who has already said yes.", "A listed share is acquisition currency, which is the argument for listing that survives when the fundraising argument does not.", "Products built by consultants between assignments almost never become products, and it is the most repeated mistake in the sector.", "The one rule of board work: the chair runs the board and the chief executive runs the company, and most board dysfunction is that line being crossed."], "slug": "ep123-ipot-fuusiot-ja-hallitustyo-petri-niemi", "guestsCanonical": ["Petri Niemi"], "guestPages": ["https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/guests/petri-niemi/"], "page": "https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep123-ipot-fuusiot-ja-hallitustyo-petri-niemi/", "markdown": "https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep123-ipot-fuusiot-ja-hallitustyo-petri-niemi/index.md", "captions": null, "transcript": null, "videoId": "FVTcbjJ-KKw", "dbId": null, "qaCoveragePct": 0.0, "qaSemanticVerdict": "metadata_only", "aiArticleEn": "https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep123-ipot-fuusiot-ja-hallitustyo-petri-niemi/", "aiArticleFi": "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/economy/ep123-ipot-fuusiot-ja-hallitustyo-petri-niemi/"}