An Unparalleled History in M&A: The Complete Story of Gordon Bizar and National Diversified Funding Corporation (NDFC)
Celebrating a 55-Year Legacy
For more than five decades, National Diversified Funding Corporation (NDFC) and its founder Gordon Bizar have been reshaping the business acquisition landscape. With over 3,500 completed transactions, NDFC holds a place in the annals of M&A history that no other firm has ever matched.
This is a story of vision, innovation, and structures designed not just for wealth creation — but for partnership, security, and scale.
1960s - 1970s
Foundation Years
The Go-Go Days
On Wall Street, leveraged buyouts (LBOs) were new and experimental.
1980 - 1998
The Surge Years
In 1980, inflation drove the prime rate to 21%, crushing the LBO model for mid-market firms, Gordon pivoted.
1998 - 2025
The Momentum Years
After 1998, deal flow slowed, but NDFC continued to close transactions steadily — an estimated 570 through 2025, despite market turbulence.
2025 =>
The Next Chapter
NDFC’s legacy is unmatched, unparalleled, and still growing to build the next generation of partnerships where everybody wins.
Foundation Years - The Go-Go Days (1960s–1970s)
- On Wall Street, leveraged buyouts (LBOs) were new and experimental.
- Gordon Bizar was among the first to adapt them to mid-market companies.
- By the end of the 1970s, he had completed 33 pioneering deals, proving LBOs could unlock ownership and scale for private entrepreneurs.
The Surge Years (1980–1998)
In 1980, inflation drove the prime rate to 21%, crushing the LBO model for mid-market firms. Gordon pivoted.
The Innovation
- He realized small businesses could still be acquired using seller financing.
- He launched Bizar Financing™, teaching entrepreneurs how to buy companies without large amounts of upfront capital.
The Marketing Engine
Gordon built one of the most successful financial education marketing campaigns in U.S. history:
- Major newspaper ads in the 40 largest metro markets.
- Spot television ads in prime slots.
- A groundbreaking 1983 infomercial, Getting Rich Your Way.
- Media exposure: The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, INC., Fortune, Entrepreneur Magazine.
- Appearances on national and local TV and radio — including NBC’s iconic Today Show.
Brokers Never Saw Us Coming — By Design
During the surge years, NDFC’s public message was centered on financial leverage — famously phrased as “How to Buy a Business with No Cash.”
That message filled rooms with entrepreneurs eager to find deals. But to many brokers, it sounded like a red flag. They assumed “no cash” meant a buyer who couldn’t close or that there wouldn’t be money left to pay their commission.
They were wrong on both counts. Every deal NDFC touched closed through a buyer SPE and in the name of our local partner. Brokers never realized they were actually doing business with us — and yet they always received their full commission.
This wasn’t an accident. It was strategy. Rather than waste time fighting broker bias, NDFC chose to let our deals come in under the radar. The brokers involved got paid, every time, without ever knowing the scale of the machine behind the scenes.
Today, NDFC has evolved. NDFC is still masters of financial leverage, but now we’ve also created substantial equity capital resources:
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Our own registered fund, the NDFC Business Acquisition Partners Fund
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Family Offices who invest alongside us
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Private investors who multiply our buying capacity
Together, these capital partners strengthen our model while preserving what has always been true: brokers earn their full commission on every deal.
Thus, NDFC hid the reality that we put more commission dollars into brokers’ pockets than any other buyer ever — and we continue to do so today, now with even greater capacity.
If you’ve been in this business long enough, chances are you may have already earned a commission on one of our acquisitions — and never realized it was NDFC behind the deal.
Media Leverage → Deal Network
What made this period truly unprecedented was the way NDFC parlayed media into deal flow. Every ad, every infomercial, every seminar created new deal finders. Thousands of them. Bizar Financing™ graduates didn’t just learn concepts — they actively went out into their markets and uncovered opportunities.
Gordon and his father then organized trained teams in every major city to partner with those graduates and close deals. This distributed network, fueled by mass media and supported by structured training, became a nationwide acquisition engine. It was this system — media at the front end, trained teams at the back end — that explains how NDFC achieved more than 3,000 transactions in less than two decades.
The Scale
- 350,000+ attendees at weekday Bizar Financing™ Essentials trainings.
- 30,000+ Pro conference graduates.
- Gordon partnered with ~7% of Pro graduates, co-closing about 2,100 transactions.
- An additional ~900 deals came from Essentials attendees.
Total: Over 3,000 deals closed between 1980 and 1998 alone.
This is where Gordon earned the media title “Mr. LBO”, becoming the go-to acquisition expert for national and local media.
The Momentum Years: (1998–2025)
After 1998, deal flow slowed, but NDFC continued to close transactions steadily — about 570 through 2025, despite market turbulence.
Resilience Through Crises
- 2007–2008 Financial Crisis – When others froze, Gordon’s structures kept deals moving.
- 2020–2023 Pandemic – Even amid shutdowns, NDFC sustained closings.
Why It Worked
- Every acquisition was housed in a bankruptcy-remote Special Purpose Entity (SPE).
- No cross-collateralization – One company’s failure never dragged others down.
- No personal guarantees – Gordon’s model insulated both him and his partners.
Stealth Wealth by Design
By the 1980s–90s, Gordon was in front of thousands weekly. Being promoted as a billionaire would have created unacceptable risks for his family.
So he designed a structure of stealth wealth:
- Ownership shares held in trusts outside his estate.
- No personal guarantees, no entanglement.
- No cross-collateralization across SPEs.
- Estate planning designed for safety and continuity.
By never allowing himself to be identified or promoted as a billionaire, Gordon preserved security while still building generational wealth for partners, sellers, and brokers.
The Legacy
Total Transaction Record:
- 33 deals in the Foundation Years (1960s–70s).
- 3,000+ deals in the Surge Years (1980–1998).
- 570+ deals in the Momentum Years (1998–2025).
Grand Total: Over 3,500 completed transactions.
No other organization in the M&A arena has ever achieved this scale, longevity, or impact. Gordon Bizar and NDFC didn’t just witness the evolution of modern acquisitions — they helped engineer it.
Why This Matters Today
NDFC’s history isn’t just impressive — it’s the foundation of our model today:
- Confidence for brokers – NDFC’s proven we can close, time after time.
- Trust for sellers – NDFC protects legacies, jobs, and companies.
- Opportunities for entrepreneurs – NDFC shares ownership, not hoard it.
- Security for partners – Every deal stands alone, bankruptcy-remote.
The Next Chapter
From pioneering Wall Street tools in the 1960s…
To training and partnering with tens of thousands of entrepreneurs in the 1980s and 1990s…
To sustaining steady deal flow through recessions and pandemics…
NDFC’s legacy is unmatched, unparalleled, and still growing.
NDFC is proud to celebrate it’s history — and even prouder to build the next generation of partnerships where everybody wins.