M&A Blog and News

Blog Posts, News and Articles

Learn from diverse experts across the world of mergers and acquisitions

M&A Leadership Council training
August 15, 2023

The Art of M&A® / Due Diligence: How Extensive Should Due Diligence Be?
An excerpt from The Art of M&A Due Diligence, Second Edition: Navigating Critical Steps and Uncovering Crucial Data by Alexandra Reed Lajoux and Charles M. Elson

How far a buyer wishes to go in the due diligence process depends in part on how much time the buyer has and how much money it has to investigate the company it wishes to buy. This will depend to some extent on the status .....

August 10, 2023

What Begins to Happen After Day One
by Vadim Gringolts, CTO, Binary Tree

As it relates to corporate email systems, Day One is focused on enabling the employees of the merging organizations to transparently send and receive email internally and externally, as well as schedule meetings, with everyone in both organizations.

August 1, 2023

The Art of M&A® / Integration: Harmonization of Post-Merger Compensation Plans
An excerpt from The Art of M&A, Fifth Edition: A Merger, Acquisition, and Buyout Guide by Alexandra Reed Lajoux

Why would a newly combined company want to have different pay plans for its units? Because the units may have very different pay environments. Base pay may differ from industry to industry for similar jobs.......

July 27, 2023

Take a Layered Approach to Understanding the Target's True Culture
by Mark Herndon, Chairman Emeritus, M&A Leadership Council

Almost every M&A study completed since the beginning of time has consistently determined two key findings. First, that culture matters; and second, that acquirers are generally ill-equipped at cultural due diligence.

July 24, 2023

Paranoia: Running Scared Can be an M&A Best Practice
By Jack Prouty, Past President, M&A Leadership Council

Successful mergers and acquisitions hinge on creating value and mitigating risk. Working in M&A over the last 30 years has taught me the high value of being paranoid. Many challenges will crop up throughout any deal: from diligence, to integration .......

July 22, 2023

The Buyer's Perspective 
Written by Chittur P. Narayan, Principal Director of M&A Integration Management at CBRE, Inc.

Carve-outs are among the most complex transactions. This is especially true when the carve-out involves the sale of a business unit that is operationally integrated with the rest of the parent company’s business. In such transactions, the seller may be......

July 17, 2023

Stabilization, Integration and Optimization in M&A
by Jack Prouty, Past President, M&A Leadership Council

One of the riskiest days in the life of an M&A, and in fact often THE riskiest day, is when the deal is first announced. Immediate reaction of the various stakeholders (employees, customers, strategic partners and financial shareholders) is fear, concern, uncertainty.

July 13, 2023

The Art of M&A® / Due Diligence: Precedent Transactions Analysis
An excerpt from The Art of M&A, Fifth Edition: A Merger, Acquisition, and Buyout Guide by Alexandra Reed Lajoux

Unfortunately, there are some limitations to using comparable transactions to estimate the value of a target. Here again, precedent transactions share several of these disadvantages with their comparable company brethren.