next five years, it could be attractive to the financial community. “I have thought about going public, merging with another company, acquiring companies,” he says. “I’m basically doing my research now so I can make an informed decision about the direction of the company. We’ll need to do something in the next year or two.”
Often companies of RSIS’ size become acquisition targets for large corporations, or they seek to acquire smaller companies to gain critical scale. “T
here’s been a continuing trend of consolidation, so [there is] more and more shrinkage of those companies in the middle–the $100 million to $500 million a year in business,” says BB&T’s Allen. But there are challenges here too. Going public opens up a whole other box of reporting requirements and administrative overhead that would affect how RSIS’ management team handles its operations and plots its business strategy.
Another option Hunt and his team are mulling over is an acquisition that would place RSIS into strategic markets such as the intelligence community, where the company doesn’t have great penetration. “There are very large budget appropriations there, but it’s very hard to break into the intel world. So we’re looking at firms that have that capability.”
Hunt has achieved wealth, respect, and many levels of success. And he has a lot of big decisions on the horizon, not the least of which are the details of his upcoming marriage to Judith M. Wasserman. But first, there are his mother’s income taxes. Though he can afford a team of accountants, his mother insists he do it personally. Despite his hectic schedule, he finds the time. He believes it is the least he can do for her.
“I probably don’t even know the things she went through to make sure we had a good life,” Hunt says soberly. “I love my parents to death and I would give them my heart if I had to.”
B.E. 100s Flashback
When the Top 100 debuted in 1973, BE profiled Johnson Products Co. and founder George Johnson as the model of black business excellence. With sales of $17.5 million, the maker of Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen was the sixth largest black enterprise in the country.
In the 10th Annual Report on Black Business in 1982, BE made the Company of the Year designation official, highlighting firms that displayed superior performance. Our editors’ choice: Percy Sutton’s Inner City Broadcasting Corp. No. 20 on our list with sales of $22 million, the radio broadcaster was making its foray into cable television and was considered one of the nation’s largest black media giants