A business sale produces a small stack of documents with overlapping names. Buyers and first-time sellers often use them interchangeably. They are not interchangeable, and the difference is mostly about one thing: how much the reader has agreed to before they get to read.
The teaser
The teaser, sometimes called a blind profile, is the public face of the listing. It is one or two pages, it goes out before any NDA, and it is written so that nobody can tell which business it describes. It gives the industry, a broad region, rough revenue and earnings, and a few reasons the business is attractive.
Its only job is to get a qualified buyer to sign the NDA. A teaser that says too much identifies the company. A teaser that says too little gets ignored.
The CIM
The confidential information memorandum is what the buyer receives after signing. It names the business and goes deep: financial history, operations, people, customers, the lease, the reason for sale. This is the document a buyer decides from.
In the lower middle market you will also see it called a confidential business review, or simply "the book." On Main Street deals, some brokers call a shorter version a business summary.
The offering memorandum
Offering memorandum, or OM, is in practice another name for the CIM. The term is more common in commercial real estate and in larger transactions, and some brokers prefer it because it says plainly what the document is doing. If someone hands you an OM for a business, expect a CIM.
One caution: in securities law, an offering memorandum can mean a formal disclosure document for an investment. A business-sale CIM is not that, and its disclaimer usually says so.
The data room
The data room is not a document. It is the organized set of source records behind the CIM: tax returns, statements, the lease, contracts, licenses. Buyers usually get it in stages, with the most sensitive items held back until there is an accepted offer.
Why the sequence matters
Each step trades more information for more commitment. Teaser for interest, CIM for a signed NDA, data room for a serious offer. Deals get into trouble when that sequence breaks: a CIM forwarded to someone who never signed, or a full set of tax returns emailed to a buyer who was only curious.
This article is general information for brokers and sellers. It is not legal, tax, or financial advice, and practice varies by deal, lender, and state.