153 Posts Found

In the world of mergers and acquisitions, the goal is to take two (or more) companies and seamlessly integrate processes, products and people. When trying to pull off a successful deal, however, many senior executives focus their attention on the financial aspects of mergers and fail to consider their psychological implications, Wharton management professor John Kimberly says. In a new paper, Kimberly and his co-author … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

Contrary to popular belief, serial acquirers create less value on average than companies that rarely do M&A, according to a BCG analysis of more than 26,000 deals. But the top serial acquirers generate superior value by focusing on the right targets at the right time. Contributors: Jens Kengelbach, Dominic C. Klemmer, Dr. Bernhard Schwetzler, Dr. Marco O. Sperling, Alexander Roos.

Content: Article | Author: Alexander Roos | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

While some M&A deals turn out to be great successes, it’s no surprise that a lot of mergers and acquisitions fail. The obvious factors explaining the failures include culture clashes or founders leaving—taking the DNA with them in the process.

But M&A is more art than science, and the reasons why so many deals fail to deliver on their 1+1=3 promise are complex. Here … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | Source: TechCrunch | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

When one company merges with another, common business wisdom suggests that the newly combined firm has a lower risk of going into default, because the transaction gives the merged corporation greater diversity than the two individual participants. But according to a study by Craig Furfine, a clinical professor of finance at the Kellogg School of Management, and Richard Rosen, of the Federal Reserve Bank of … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Kellogg Insight | Subjects: Mergers & Acquisitions, Risk Management

Companies advance myriad strategies for creating value with acquisitions—but only a handful are likely to do so.

Content: Article | Authors: David Wessels, Marc H. Goedhart, Tim Koller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

Due diligence cannot always be perfect. However, from a legal perspective, the point is to make a good faith effort to conduct due diligence, within the limits of time and funding, and in consideration of what matters most—the long-term financial health of the surviving company and its stakeholders. This author has written a comprehensive primer on the subject.

Editor’s Note: Very US-centric but still of general … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Alexandra Reed Lajoux | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

Bringing together groups of previously unacquainted employees operating in their own distinct cultures is challenging, and most organizations going through a merger or acquisition recognize and try to address these challenges. But often people and culture issues are treated too abstractly, too informally or too late in the process.

According to a new Towers Watson pulse survey, organizations going through an M&A have a greater chance … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Towers Watson | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

Purchasing assets in default or under bankruptcy protection can be an attractive path to growth. Often significantly discounted, they can represent the deal of a lifetime. But they also present a unique set of hazards.

Content: Article | Authors: Bob Glass, Kevin Charles, Tom Williamson | Source: Deloitte Review | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

The crux of due diligence is the need to mitigate overall transaction risk through the identification , quantification and substantiation of value drivers or value inhibitors, and to recognize the differences, if any, between these and what was the basis of anticipated deal value at the beginning of the process.

For every transaction, one can define a transaction value matrix, which frames the key sources … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Deloitte | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

Too many executives treat diligence as an audit to confirm what they think they know, rather than a solution to the problem of “I don’t know what I don’t know.”

Content: Quotation | Authors: David Harding, Hugh MacArthur | Source: Bain & Company | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

[In M&A] it’s essential to formulate a strong, well-articulated deal thesis in advance and to concentrate analysis on proving it from the bottom up. All deal theses should answer the question: “How will buying this business make my existing business more valuable?” If a potential transaction has strategic value, the assertion needs to be backed up with customer input, competitor insight, new industry data and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: David Harding, Hugh MacArthur | Source: Bain & Company | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

A lot of academic research shows that the odds of making an acquisition work are not high. Careful thinking about what it means for an acquisition to succeed, coupled with an analysis of why deals fail, can lead to some practical advice for managers, thus helping them to develop a more refined view. More specifically, in order for acquisitions to pay off, they ought to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Peter S. Cohan | Source: Babson Insight | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

Culture is a broad, woolly concept, which often means different things to different people. And, unsurprisingly, culture clashes have been used to describe all sorts of organizational conflicts that occur following an acquisition. Therefore we launched a study to understand which specific types of cultural compatibility impact the subsequent performance of a cross-border acquisition. Six dimensions of cultural difference were identified and investigated. The six … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Richard Schoenberg | Source: think Cranfield | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

As companies gear up for growth, they are seeking targets that can help their companies innovate.

Content: Article | Author: Sarah Johnson | Source: CFO Publishing | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

Why successful M&A now depends on getting your ducks in a row as early as possible.

Content: Article | Author: Randy Myers | Source: CFO Publishing | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

In my experience with global mergers, creating stable working environments and certainty about the immediate future is critical to re-establishing commitment. Looking at the increasing M&A activity in the private and public sectors, and thinking about the possibilities for the future, leads me to conclude that at no time in the history of management has the role of the line manager been so critical to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Christopher Bones | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

Cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are on the increase in virtually every sector across the globe. Although such transactions offer significant advantages, they also pose several postmerger integration (PMI) challenges, ranging from difficulties in obtaining reliable, accurate information about a target to cultural, political, and regulatory hurdles. This Focus discusses five major challenges and suggests various solutions, drawing on the experiences of companies that have … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Chris Barrett, Daniel Friedman, Niamh Dawson, Peter Goldsbrough, Peter Strüven | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

Gods at War details the recent deals and events that have forever changed the world of billion-dollar deal-making. This book is a whirlwind tour of the players determining the destiny of corporate America, including the government, private equity, strategic buyers, hedge funds, and sovereign wealth funds. It not only examines many of the game-changing takeover events that have occurred in the past years, but also … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Steven M. Davidoff | Subjects: Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions

The numbers don’t lie. Many top corporate managers are faced with the challenge of a post merger integration (PMI) at least once in their career. And empirical studies indicate that one of every two PMI efforts fares poorly.1 These statistics are particularly telling given that mergers and acquisitions have been a staple management instrument for almost a century now and that there has been growing … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Freddy Strottmann, Johannes Gerds, Pakshalika Jayaprakash | Source: Deloitte Review | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

This collection of articles explores many of the common people-related integration challenges organizations are likely to face during an M&A transaction, and offers recommendations to help executive leadership get it right for Day One and beyond. There are five sections:

Section 1: Due Diligence
Section 2: Integration Management
Section 3: Integration
Section 4: Post-Merger Integration
Section 5: Divestiture

Content: Article | Source: Deloitte | Subjects: Human Resources, Mergers & Acquisitions, Organizational Behavior