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Ten Takeaways from The Art of M&A Due Diligence

October 2, 2017

Workshop Attendees Share Their Lessons.
By Jack Prouty, President of the M&A Leadership Council

Next month is your last chance in 2017 to join the M&A Leadership Council for The Art of M&A Due Diligence. In this unique workshop setting, you’ll dive into best practices in due diligence alongside your colleagues and M&A experts from BDO, Willis Towers Watson and others. Here’s a look at some of the lessons that past attendees learned from The Art of M&A Due Diligence.

A Look into the Future of Due Diligence

September 20, 2017

Cybersecurity, social media and artificial intelligence are all shaping the scope, strategy and tactics of due diligence.
By Jim Jeffries, Chairman of the M&A Leadership Council

What does the future of proper due diligence look like? In the past decade, M&A professionals have moved beyond checklists to take a more robust, strategic approach to due diligence. Meanwhile, technology has come to play an increasingly important role in due diligence, both in the form of tools for M&A practitioners and as a source for identifying potential risks and issues. While exposure to cyber breaches has become a critical issue, we cannot ignore social media or artificial intelligence.

M&A for HR Leaders: Best Practices from Serial Acquirers

August 29, 2017

Successful Acquirers Consistently Include HR on the M&A Deal Team
By Kelly Karger, Senior Mergers & Acquisitions and Retirement Consultant, Willis Towers Watson, a Partner of the M&A Leadership Council

What are the leading causes of M&A deal failures? Research over the past years has consistently highlighted the role of people issues (from talent retention to organizational culture) in M&A deal value erosion.

Artificial Intelligence: The Potential, the Risk and the Liability

August 29, 2017

Introductory Seminar Addresses AI-Related Worker Dislocation and Corporate Upheaval
Submitted by Capital Expert Services

Smart automation is rapidly changing the way we do business and having a disruptive socioeconomic impact. The most sophisticated forms of automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems (AS, also called robotics), are now able to do what was considered science fiction only a few years ago.

Sell-side Financial Due Diligence: How it is Essential to Support Seller Deal Value

August 28, 2017

A Step that Tells the Financial "Story" of a Business
By Tom Jones, Partner, Transaction Advisory Services, BDO USA LLP, a Partner of the M&A Leadership Council

There are clear benefits to performing sell-side due diligence in connection with the sale of a business. More sellers are investing in sell-side financial due diligence as a key component of a well-run sales process which, for many reasons, there is no substitute for when it comes to selling a business.

What Digitalization Means for M&A and Knowledge Work

August 25, 2017

Technology Unlocks New Possibilities
By Kalle Kilpi of Midaxo, a partner of the M&A Leadership Council

It’s easy to understand how digitalization disrupts industries like retail shops in a game-changing way.It’s harder to understand how digitalization provides a game-changing disruption to knowledge work, such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Sure, many meetings are replaced by collaborative tools and Excel spreadsheets are replaced with online project management trackers, but that is not yet real, game-changing disruption enabled by digitalization.

Activistmonitor Releases H1 Findings for Shareholder Activism

August 25, 2017

Highlights include return of super campaigns
Submitted by Acuris, a Partner of the M&A Leadership Council

Activistmonitor, an Acuris comprehensive shareholder activist platform that covers shareholder activist data and intelligence, including 13F filing analysis, has released its findings for the first half (H1) of 2017 for shareholder activism in North America

HR Challenges in Cross-Border M&A

August 24, 2017

Historically it was not uncommon for HR to get a “seat at the table” late in the M&A process, if they were offered a seat at all. We are happy to report that we have heard from many of our HR colleagues that HR is engaged earlier and at a more strategic level. If HR is engaged late in the M&A process it can result in unrealized synergies and additional deal value erosion for domestic M&A deals.