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M&A Blog and News

What Serial Acquirers Know

August 23, 2018

The Good Keep Getting Better
By Jack Prouty, President of the M&A Leadership Council

Jim Jeffries and I founded the M&A Leadership Council eight years ago with the mission of helping companies grow their in-house M&A competencies and get better at M&A. At the time, we thought our target audience would be mid-size companies largely new to M&A. Instead we have found that most of our program attendees are from large, publicly traded companies that are serial acquirers. They are good at M&A, but they know that good is not good enough. If they are going to continue to be successful serial acquirers, then they need to be best of class.

Good, Fast, Cheap?

August 21, 2018

Balancing Competing Initiatives
By Bruce Fleming, EVP Strategy at Calumet Specialty Products and Member of the Board of M&A Standards

I’ve sometimes been asked what percentage of the deal price should be budgeted for diligence costs. Many deal costs do have a quick rule of thumb, but with respect to Due Diligence it’s safe to say “It depends.” Do you want the diligence to be good, fast, or cheap?

M&A Competency: A Business Imperative

July 27, 2018

Building In-House Competencies for Acquisition Growth
By Jack Prouty, President of M&A Leadership Council

Eight years ago, Jim Jeffries and I started the M&A Leadership Council to give back by sharing our M&A expertise with the business community through our public M&A training programs and other avenues, such as the M&A Monthly. We thought initially the draw would be with midsize companies who had no experience in M&As.

Mergermarket Healthcare M&A Forum

July 27, 2018

Mergermarket Healthcare M&A Forum
Submitted by Mergermarket, a partner of the M&A Leadership Council 

Join the healthcare industry’s most prolific dealmakers for discussions on how to close deals throughout the industry as well as how technology is driving sector-wide transformation and creating opportunities for M&A practitioners in the months ahead.

Avoid Being the Next M&A Horror Story

July 25, 2018

(First in a series of posts about doing HR M&A right)

The higher the stakes, the bigger the headline!

We are seeing an ever-growing complexity of shorter timelines for due diligence, more competition, more global focus, and increased competition for internal M&A talent to support deals. It is critical to focus on the people aspect of deals. Rarely is a deal done that doesn’t involve the transition of key leaders and professionals whose experience, energy and knowledge are required to produce the desired results.

How Deal Insurance Improves M&A Transaction Execution

July 19, 2018

Protect M&A with R&W Insurance
​By Michael Williams with BDO, a partner of the M&A Leadership Council

The use of representations and warranties (R&W) insurance in mergers and acquisitions has grown significantly over the past several years and has become an increasingly integral component of the transaction process. This article focuses on how buyers and sellers use R&W insurance for both strategic and risk management purposes to improve deal execution by accelerating the parties’ ability to reach agreement, thereby expediting the close of a transaction.   
 

Executing the Digital Deal

July 19, 2018

Retaining and Engaging Digital Talent
By Ken Kuk with Willis Towers Watson, a partner of M&A Leadership Council

An increasing number of companies use corporate transactions as a means to acquire the talent they need for digital transformation, in hopes of leveraging assets (e.g., data) to create new sources of value for customers and shareholders. They’re seeking new ways of engaging with customers, more customized products and solutions, and the use of automation and machine learning to increase operating efficiency.

 

Speed Dating in M&A: It Does Make Sense!

July 18, 2018

Balancing Competing Initiatives     
By William Blandford, Managing Director at Blandford Associates and Member of The Board of M&A Standards

"Speed Dating" is defined as an organized process in which participants have one-on-one conversations, typically limited to less than ten minutes, for the purpose of getting to know others. I have used this "Speed Dating" process to identify and address the complex relationships among competing initiatives (referred to as interdependencies) with functional integration teams for acquisitions, especially in more complicated cases.