# IBA

Pacific Northwest sell side, since 1975.

A Pacific Northwest business brokerage working Washington, Oregon and Alaska since 1975, selling privately held companies with market values between $500,000 and $30,000,000, and publishing both its fee model and what working with it costs a buyer.

- Category: Business Brokers & M&A Advisors
- Pricing model: Success Fee
- Where it fits: Define & Test Your Thesis, Source & Screen Deals
- Website: https://ibainc.com

## At a Glance

The Pacific Northwest answer, and the rare brokerage that tells a buyer in writing what it costs to look.

- Kind: One firm, one bench of brokers, one process.
- Footprint: Names Alaska, Oregon and Washington. It works beyond the states it names, so one it does not name is worth asking about rather than ruling out.
- Sells: Privately held Pacific Northwest companies at $500,000 to $30,000,000 of market value, across almost every sector of that economy, with over 4,400 transactions since 1975. A named measure, a floor a self-funded buyer can reach, and a count that agrees with itself.
  - Publishes a size band you can check yourself against.
- Seller Fee: Publishes the structure. It says when a fee is owed and on what basis, but names no number, so the amount takes a call.
- Buyer Fee: Says the buyer pays nothing. It states that the seller pays and the buyer does not. Read it as a claim about its own listings; a separate buy-side search, where one is offered, may be priced differently and often is not priced at all.
  - States that all its fees are paid by sell-side clients and that there is no cost for a buyer to evaluate a business it represents. It offers a separate acquisition representation service on a selective basis and publishes no price for that.
- Works For: Represents buyers. Names a buy-side service a buyer engages, so somebody on this list can be working for you. None of them publishes what it costs, so ask that first.
- Before It Shows You Anything: Wants proof of funds before it shows you a business. Proof of funds or a personal financial statement, alongside the NDA. Expect to show what you can actually spend before you see a single set of books.
  - A confidentiality agreement and a demonstration of the financial ability to negotiate in good faith, both asked for before specific information on a business is released. Regraded from nda on a re-read: the directory row had said three documents all along and the fit registry was the shallower record.

## What It Costs

The model without a number, in its own words: '100% of our business brokerage fees are contingent on successful completion of a transaction', and it is 'not interested in collecting retainers & administrative fees as part of our business model'. For a buyer: 'There is no cost for a buyer to evaluate a business represented for sale by IBA as a potential acquisition.' No percentage is published anywhere.

## Best For

Buyers hunting in Washington, Oregon or Alaska who want to know what the listing broker costs them before they call

## Pros and Cons

- Pro: Publishes a value band, $500,000 to $30,000,000, that straddles most of what a [searcher](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/searcher) can finance
- Pro: States its fee model in two places in consistent language, including what it does not charge
- Pro: Answers the buyer's own cost question in writing, which most brokerages never do
- Pro: Fifty years in one region, with over 4,400 completed transactions by its own count
- Con: No percentage, no ladder and no minimum, so paid on performance tells a seller nothing about the number
- Con: Its [buy-side](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/buy-side-versus-sell-side) representation page states no fee basis at all, so a searcher wanting representation cannot price it
- Con: Three states: outside the Pacific Northwest this firm answers nothing

## What Searchers Say

Footprint, fee language, value band and transaction count all read from IBA's own pages. It rations buy-side work by its own statement: 'IBA is predominantly a seller representation company. We traditionally do not represent buyers interested in acquiring a company represented for sale by another mergers & acquisitions firm.' Its buyer gate is three documents: an [NDA](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/nda), an acquisition criteria profile, and proof of ability to negotiate in good faith.

## Sources

- https://ibainc.com
- https://ibainc.com/areas-served/
- https://ibainc.com/sell-a-business/
- https://ibainc.com/buy-a-business/buyer-frequently-asked-questions/

Also on this site: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/category/broker.md
Source: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/iba
Last checked: 2026-09-20

Site index for machines: https://searchspheresource.com/llms.txt