The Kforce Story: 50 Plus Years of Great People Delivering Great Results

Dave and Howard took the lead in negotiating with the franchisor but after several offers and counteroffers, they remained at a stalemate. As Dave said, “The deal cratered,” and Dave was ready to break away with the AMD brand. In good cop/bad cop fashion, that’s the point at which Howard dug in his heels. He contacted the lawyers to find out if there was a way to buy some time. The deadline for filing a particular document with the state was rapidly approaching. “This was Friday afternoon,” Howard recalled, “and if we didn’t file it by midnight we’d have to start all over again.” Howard scrambled to get a check from Dave for the filing fee and file the report that would give them another thirty days to complete the negotiations. With the additional thirty days in his back pocket, Howard contacted the individual whose resistance had led to the breakdown in negotiations, lamenting the unhappy turn of events. Before the conversation ended, Howard managed to get him to agree to accept

their final offer. “So we took control of the company under the name Romac International,” Howard said. “That was in August of 1994 and the owners, the ones we negotiated with to buy the company, now became minority owners in Romac International.” Over the next one to two years selected franchises were purchased and the others were allowed to buy out their franchises and go off on their own under a new name. The next step was to go public to provide the liquidity for the minority owners. Having interviewed a number of investment bankers, they began working with Prudential Securities and Robert W. Baird, a Wall Street banking house with a reputation for being an expert in the staffing industry. Just as they were about to issue the IPO (initial public offering) of stock in March of 1995, the market underwent a correction. The shareholders would have to be patient.

The following June, Dave got a call from the investment bankers saying the federal reserve had cut the interest rate and now was the time to move. They began the customary “road show,” visiting potential investors. “People were watching us closely at the time,” Pete Alonso recalls. “It was a consuming process, and we were opening up a lot of offices. It was controlled chaos. It was most rewarding how we all pulled together as a team and made it happen.” Ultimately, they ended up being oversubscribed on the offering by ten to fifteen times and with this first show of success, some of the shareholders, the owners of Romac and Associates, opted not to cash out after all. The company went public on August 14, 1995, with an initial offering of 1.6 million shares priced at $12.50 per share, split adjusted to $3.12 per share.

Left to right: Paul Branca, Brian Cuddy, David Rutter, Bob Bond, and their wives enjoy a night out, 1995.

39 Turning Points