I really wonder how many companies have done this.
They enter into an agreement for a buyout and then after a series of say 3 or 4 payments simply declare they own the company now and start using the trademarks and logo and effectively push out the original company.
If I owned a small company and was engaged in some form of agreement like this I'd be petrified something similar would happen.
That's why you have to make sure you have a good contract with all potential what-ifs covered. Then the big company will have to find a what-if that you didn't cover and if you're luck it will be ridiculous enough that you won't need a massive legal team to defend your agreement.
Either that or you go into it just hoping to get all of the money, but you make sure that the up-front money is enough to keep you floating down the river.
They enter into an agreement for a buyout and then after a series of say 3 or 4 payments simply declare they own the company now and start using the trademarks and logo and effectively push out the original company.
If I owned a small company and was engaged in some form of agreement like this I'd be petrified something similar would happen.