Sometimes Complete Integration Isn't the Right Answer By Jeffrey Cartwright, M&A Leadership Council Alum and Managing Partner of Shoreview Advisors After only one day of due diligence, our integration team had to decide whether to Newellize Holson Burnes. We initially identified no synergies in sales, marketing or product development. Thus we opted to Newellize Holson Burnes as a hybrid...... Tags:  M&A integration case studies Newellization M&A best practices ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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.   Tags:  men; integration M&A program management program management deals deal value ..read more

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  ..read more

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 ..... Tags:  M&A integration SaaS mergers and acquisitions success ..read more

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.  ..read more

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 dollars for hammering, $90 for ..read more

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, and intrusion remediation tools and processes are typical areas to review ..read more

5 Capabilities and Custom Design Requirements by Mark Herndon, Chairman Emeritus, M&A Leadership Council, with contributions by Mark Juergens A close friend, client and colleague – one who is deeply experienced in both M&A and divestitures – often coaches his team to remember “divestitures are not acquisitions spelled backwards.” We wholeheartedly agree, and if ..read more