M&A Blog and News

May 24, 2017

Let’s pick up where we left off last week in our discussion about the Business Impact of Integration Project Staffing.

As reported in that post, based on our recent survey, The State of M&A Integration Effectiveness 2014, integration project staffing was cited as both the #1 “most important breakthrough or best practice with integration,” and simultaneously listed as the #1 “greatest remaining obstacle to overcome for more consistent integration success.”

May 17, 2017

(Fifth in a Series on Change Management)

It’s time to get down to tactics. For our fifth and final (for now) article on the importance of change management to M&A integration success, we want to focus on specific actions, components, processes or reinforcements that you should consider as a part of your change campaign.

April 26, 2017

(Seventh in a Series on Culture)

I saw a report from well-known industry analyst recently that said essentially this. “The primary cause of the (“ABC/XYZ”) merger failure was cultural incompatibility. XYZ, the TargetCo, historically focused on quality first and price second. For ABC, the BuyerCo, everything they have always done was just the opposite and their insistence on extreme cost leadership destroyed XYZ’s business.”

April 25, 2017

Chairman’s Message
By Jim Jeffries, Chairman M&A Leadership Council ​ 

Many companies declare victory on the day of signing the letter of intent (LOI) but beyond that, “it’s just a matter of getting through the diligence!”  Whoa!  That’s the wrong headset.  The right headset heard from best acquirers is “our best acquisitions are the ones we never do ...

April 25, 2017

IT Integration vs. Rationalization
By Mark Herndon, President, M&A Partners, a Partner of M&A Leadership Council

One of the common regrets we often hear from senior executives during surveys and internal M&A capability assessments is that they “throttled back” on integration efforts too quickly post-closing. Meaning, they achieved short-term integration success, such as we have previously defined as “steady-state ... 

April 25, 2017

An Essential Element in the M&A Due Diligence Process
By Nolan Willis, PMP, LSSBB - IT Due Diligence Leader, BDO, a Partner of M&A Leadership Council

Performing IT due diligence prior to a merger or acquisition has become an essential step to ensure better valuation, financial modeling, and risk mitigation. The primary objective of IT due diligence is to determine if there are insurmountable risks which could impact the transaction ...

April 25, 2017

Record High Levels of M&A Activity for Asia in Q1 but Muted Results Globally
Submitted by Willis Towers Watson, a Partner of M&A Leadership Council 

LONDON, 5th April, 2017 — The number of Asian M&A deals completed* in the first quarter of 2017 is the highest number deals in recent history** according to Willis Towers Watson’s Quarterly Deal Performance Monitor (QDPM). Asian acquirers completed 80 deals in Q1 ...

April 25, 2017

A Crucial Step Within M&A
By Shaun Crimmins with Midaxo

In the Mergers and Acquisitions landscape there is very little margin for error, which could explain why more deals fail than meet or exceed goals. The number of factors contributing to failed acquisitions is certainly a long list, and applies to every stage of ...