Maybe I live in a different world, but most folks I see buy assets instead of stock.  You don't have the sins of the past coming back to bite you as you possibly could buying the stock and you get a fresh start on deductions in the form of depreciation and/or amortization.

Taxable events do happen if you sell stock, but if you have been there since day one, the liquidation of stock should not result in any taxable events since you are returning basis back to the shareholder.