Management Buyouts Put Everyone in the Comfort Zone

A deal three years in the making came to a successful close in October, 2008 when JoeAnne Hardy and three other partners finalized their management buyout of WBM Office Systems in Saskatoon.

Hardy, today the company’s president, has been with the provider of information technology, staffing and print services since the early 1980s when another management team was in charge. “Ours was the second management buyout,” she says. “Basically, they approached us with a plan where we could set aside a portion of our earnings to fund the purchase of 20 per cent of the company.”