Four signs nobody owns the people side after an acquisition, three ways to fill the gap, and why 57 of 65 Hampton Roads deals since 2023 went to out-of-town buyers.
I've been on the selling side of a deal.
Before Premier Rapport, I owned a franchise, a peer advisory and coaching business, and I sold it.
The buyer got what buyers typically get: the name, the clients, the systems, the contracts.
In the weeks after, what I noticed was how many of those relationships had really been with me, and that nobody had a plan for handing them over.
What I'd actually built didn't come in the paperwork.
Here's the short version of what I've learned since, from my own sale and from the deals I've worked inside of.
Most of what makes a local business valuable to its customers and its employees lives in relationships, and relationships do not transfer at closing.
Somebody has to own rebuilding them. In most deals, nobody does.
Years later, a business coach asked me to unpack why I'd chosen that work in the first place.
The answer was simpler than I expected.
It was never about the brick and mortar. It was always about the people.
When I was building my business here, I went to every chamber meeting I could get to.
There are three chambers in my area, and I was at all of them: morning, midday and after hours.
That's how you learn how a place works. Who people call. Who they trust.
What they'll forgive, and what they won't.
None of that is on a balance sheet, and none of it transfers at closing.
A buyer can be smart, generous and well run, and they still start that part from zero.
So do the people who work there, because the person they used to call may not be the person who decides anymore.
We've been keeping count.
Since January 2023, at least 65 Hampton Roads businesses have changed hands in deals that left a public trace, and in 57 of them the buyer is based somewhere else.
The full record, with a source for every deal, is free at The Hampton Roads Acquisition Record.
That tells you who owns these businesses now. It doesn't tell you how any of them are doing. Plenty of them are doing well.
The count isn't slowing down.
On Oct. 19, another Virginia Beach company, founded in 1978, announced its sale to a buyer in Colorado.
And it's likely to pick up.
More than half of Hampton Roads business owners with employees are 55 or older, a bigger share than the nation's, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Business Survey.
About a third are 55 to 64, the group that will reach retirement over the next decade.
If you read The Second Finish Line series this fall, you know the shape of this.
Every deal has two finish lines.
The first is closing day.
The second is the day people are actually working the new way.
In week four, I wrote that the first calendar gets a whole bench of advisors, because everything on it fits in a data room.
The second calendar doesn't, so it usually doesn't get anyone.
Here's who's typically around after closing:
The integration team has gone back to their day jobs.
The founder is stepping back, or already gone.
The new owner is often somewhere else, with a lot on their plate.
The leaders who stayed are holding it together, on top of the jobs they already had, usually without anyone saying it's theirs to hold.
That isn't a failure of any one person. It's a gap in how deals are put together.
You don't need a survey to tell. This is the same thing I teach in the first issue of this series: culture shows up in behavior long before it shows up in a dashboard.
Look for these:
1. People still take questions to the old boss, even though everyone knows the old boss doesn't decide anymore.
2. The new way only happens when someone's checking. The process is there. The habit isn't.
3. Your steadiest people have gone quiet. Not angry, just quiet. As I wrote that same week, the best people don't always complain. They just start taking the recruiter's call.
4. The leaders who stayed are tired in a way they can't name, because they're doing a second job nobody gave them.
If two or more of those sound familiar, the second finish line doesn't have an owner yet.
When I talk with leaders after a deal, it usually comes down to three options.
Promote someone from inside. They have the trust, and that's the hardest part to build. What they usually don't have is the time or the mandate. The second finish line becomes the thing they get to after 5 p.m.
Hire a full-time senior people leader. Right for some companies in the long run. But a search takes months, and the hardest stretch, the first year, can be half over before they're settled.
Bring in a fractional leader for the transition year. Someone senior enough to own it, for as many days a month as it takes, for as long as it takes.
They take the baseline in the first 90 days, the one I wrote about in week three.
They back up the leaders who stayed.
And they hand it back once the new way holds.
None of these is right for every company.
What doesn't work is the fourth option, the one nobody chooses on purpose: leaving it to whoever has time.
If your company has changed hands in the last two years, or you're the one who sold it, answer one question.
Who owns the people side right now? Not who cares about it. Who owns it?
If you can name them, ask what they need from you.
If you can't, that's your answer.
I wrote Thirsty because I kept watching companies find out too late that the thing holding them together had a name and a phone number, and nobody had written either one down.
If that question stopped you, reply and tell me.
And if you'd like to see how a fractional people and culture leader works, it's at premierrapport.com/fractional.
The Hampton Roads Acquisition Record, all 65 deals with a source for each, is free at premierrapport.com/hampton-roads-acquisition-record.
If you know an owner, a leader or an advisor who'd want it, send it to them.
Shelley D. Smith, the culture curator behind Premier Rapport, is its CEO and the author of Thirsty. A Certified Predictive Index Partner, executive coach, and speaker, she has spent 35+ years across hospitality, franchise operations, and organizational leadership helping companies detect and repair culture before it shows up in the numbers.
Learn more at premierrapport.com/about or start a conversation at premierrapport.com/contact.
Premier Rapport, The Hampton Roads Acquisition Record, as of Oct. 14, 2026.
National Kitchen & Bath Showrooms, "National Kitchen & Bath Showrooms Expands into Virginia with Acquisition of Greenwich Kitchens", PR Newswire, Oct. 19, 2026.
U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey, Characteristics of Business Owners, data year 2023. Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk metro: 56.0% of owners of employer businesses who reported an age are 55 or older; 32.1% are 55 to 64. United States: 51.3%.
Premier Rapport, "Nobody Schedules the End of a Culture Change (And That's Exactly the Problem)", The Second Finish Line, issue 1.
Premier Rapport, "They Created the Role. They Didn't Create the Baseline.", The Second Finish Line, issue 3.
Premier Rapport, "Your Systems Integrated on Schedule. Your People Didn't.", The Second Finish Line, issue 4, Sept. 23, 2026.
What are the signs nobody owns the people side after an acquisition?
Four signs show up without a survey. People still take questions to the old boss even though everyone knows the old boss no longer decides. The new way only happens when someone is checking, so the process exists but the habit does not. Your steadiest people have gone quiet, not angry, just quiet. And the leaders who stayed are tired in a way they cannot name, because they are doing a second job nobody gave them. If two or more of those sound familiar, the people side of the integration does not have an owner yet.
Who is responsible for culture after a merger or acquisition?
In most deals, nobody is formally responsible. The integration team goes back to their day jobs, the founder steps back or leaves, the new owner is often somewhere else with a lot on their plate, and the leaders who stayed hold it together on top of the jobs they already had, usually without anyone saying it is theirs to hold. That is not a failure of any one person. It is a gap in how deals are put together. The first calendar, closing day, gets a bench of advisors. The second calendar, the day people are actually working the new way, usually gets no one.
What are the options for filling the people-side gap after a deal closes?
Three options come up most often. Promote someone from inside, who has the trust but usually lacks the time or the mandate. Hire a full-time senior people leader, which is right for some companies long term, but a search takes months and the hardest stretch, the first year, can be half over before they are settled. Or bring in a fractional people and culture leader for the transition year, someone senior enough to own it, who takes the culture baseline in the first 90 days, backs up the leaders who stayed, and hands it back once the new way holds. The option that does not work is the fourth one nobody chooses on purpose: leaving it to whoever has time.
How many Hampton Roads businesses have been acquired since 2023?
According to the Hampton Roads Acquisition Record kept by Premier Rapport, at least 65 Hampton Roads businesses changed hands between January 2023 and October 2026 in deals that left a public trace, and in 57 of them the buyer is based outside the region. The pace is likely to pick up. U.S. Census Bureau Annual Business Survey data for 2023 shows that more than half of owners of employer businesses in the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk metro are 55 or older, a larger share than the national figure, and about a third are 55 to 64, the group that will reach retirement age over the next decade.
What does not transfer when a business is sold?
The buyer typically gets the name, the clients, the systems and the contracts. What does not come in the paperwork is the relationships: who people call, who they trust, what they will forgive and what they will not. None of that is on a balance sheet, and none of it transfers at closing. A buyer can be smart, generous and well run and still start that part from zero. So do the employees, because the person they used to call may not be the person who decides anymore.
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