M&A Blog and News
October 23, 2023
The Art of M&A® / Post-Merger Integration and Divestitures
An excerpt from The Art of M&A, Fifth Edition: A Merger, Acquisition, and Buyout Guide by Alexandra Reed Lajoux
Commitments to Employees: Why is it important to make and keep commitments to employees? Once again, as in the case of other stakeholders, the answer involves ethics, law, and economics. Breaking a promise is not only wrong (and sometimes illegal)....
October 16, 2023
Finding the Greatest Opportunities for Creating Value in a Business Combination
By Jack Prouty, Past President, M&A Leadership Council
Simply merging two companies does not necessarily lead to the creation of a third company of greater value. So, where can we find the greatest opportunities for creating value in a combination? .....
October 9, 2023
What You Need to Know About the "Home Base" for All Your Integration Activities
M&A Leadership Council
Establishing an IMO plan for the purposes of managing integration is highly recommended, as it provides a “home base” for all integration activities and can be set up as a unique cost center to capture integration related expenses.
October 3, 2023
The Art of M&A® / Integration: Closing
An excerpt from The Art of M&A, Fifth Edition: A Merger, Acquisition, and Buyout Guide by Alexandra Reed Lajoux
CLOSING - What happens on the closing day itself? Assuming the parties have conducted a preclosing drill, three things will typically happen: 1. Document preparation: The parties and their counsel will review any new or newly revised documents ....
September 6, 2023
SaaS Executives Share 5 Lessons
By John Christman, Former Corporate Development Global Head of M&A Integration, Cognizant Technology Solutions
Digital transformation is increasingly driving the acquisition of new, different and non-traditional businesses that require a substantially different approach to integration. And even though these acquisitions .....
September 5, 2023
Don't Step on Cultural Land Mines in M&A
by Mark Herndon, Chairman Emeritus, M&A Leadership Council
In spite of all the ink, sweat and tears that have been devoted over the last twenty years to the topic of managing culture during M&As, the unfortunate reality is that most acquirers still aren’t very good at it. .....
August 28, 2023
Hammering the "So What" About the Most Important Areas
by Jack Prouty, Past President, M&A Leadership Council
A young couple had a problem with their kitchen sink and called in a plumber to fix it. He presented them with a bill for $100, and the husband asked for a price breakdown. The plumber wrote, “$10 for hammering, $90 for ....
August 24, 2023
The Art of M&A® / Due Diligence: Detecting Cybersecurity Risk
An excerpt from The Art of M&A, Fifth Edition: A Merger, Acquisition, and Buyout Guide by Alexandra Reed Lajoux
Cybersecurity audits should be a very comprehensive review of the existing digital environment of the target company that includes a wide variety of different platforms and tools.1 IT infrastructure, including firewalls, firewall rules, intrusion detection.....