Avoid pitfalls by masking information requests
By William Blandford, Managing Director at Blandford Associates and Member of the Board of M&A Standards

In estimating and planning for a divestiture, it is necessary to gather key data about the business to be carved out, to understand the scope and complexity of the carve-out, develop a sound Transition Services Agreement (TSA), and provide an estimate of the cost of the carve-out. But it can be difficult to collect data for a possible divestiture while under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), and trying to minimize the number of people under an NDA.

Today’s post will provide a quick analysis of specific integration best practices statistically proven to drive a substantial increase in achieving the optimal pace of M&A integration, gleaned from our State of M&A Integration Effectiveness™ Survey. 

“Integration begins with due diligence.” This key principle for success has been thoroughly vetted and proved time and again. But just what kind of early integration assessment and planning can and should be done during the actual due diligence process itself?

The final installment in our mini-series on getting the riskiest days right deals with getting your combined, post-close organization through a timely, effectively and business-focused operational cut-over.

May 2017 Chairman's Message
By Jim Jeffries, Chairman, M&A Leadership Council

Next month will mark the seventh anniversary of the M&A Leadership Council, an auspicious milestone that speaks to the evolution of the organization as a catalyst for professional excellence in the M&A community. It was June 29, 2010 that my partner Jack Prouty and I held the first event.  The first program was held in Dallas, Texas and brought a total of twelve attendees. Since then more than 2,000 M&A professionals have attended M&A Leadership Council workshops all over the nation.

Insights from the 2016 Global Workforce Study
By Willis Towers Watson, a Partner of M&A Leadership Council

Successful M&A transactions often depend on their impact on employees, and effective leadership and communications make a critical difference to their engagement. Findings from the 2016 Global Workforce Study highlight the people risks inherent in these transactions and reveal what employees value during a period of change. 

The Tax Advisory Role in Buy-side Transactions
By Michael Williams,Transaction Advisory Services Tax Leader for BDO, a Partner of the M&A Leadership Council

As a strategic buyer, you can run across a multitude of complexities when evaluating a target company for acquisition, which is why the due diligence process is so important. And while tax considerations play a significant role in most transactions, tax due diligence is often overlooked in the due diligence process.

Sustainable Growth Will Win over Private Investors
By Troy Hooper of Mergermarket, a Partner of the M&A Leadership Council

Only nine technology companies have gone public this year. But this isn’t due to a lack of candidates. There are at least 100 high-caliber tech companies capable of going public that have thus far stayed private thanks to the deep and increasingly diverse pools of late-stage private capital available to them.

Let’s face it. Most acquirers aren’t very good at innovation. Cost synergies, yes. True innovation through the deals we sponsor or integrate? Not so much. Oh, sure, we talk a great game in the boardroom, but when it comes down to actually delivering on the innovation bullet point in your deal-book or making something real out of the half-baked assumptions you stuffed in the financial projection model as a placeholder, there’s typically a lot more talk than action.

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.”