M&A Science

By the time many deals get to the integration phase, team burnout and fatigue, along with all of the moving pieces of two companies coming together, can create some murky, complicated waters. Here are four common integration problems facing M&A practitioners.

Ben de Haldevang and David Boyd, Founding Partners of the M&A advisory firm, Agile Gorilla, discuss their modern, agile approach to deal and integration management. Through agile principles, such as backlogs and iterative learning cycles, Ben and David enable industry practitioners to conduct more successful, sustainable and equitable mergers and acquisitions.

Private equity vs. investment banking, which is better? These are age old financial questions that are dependent on the individual circumstances of the investor. The first thing to understand, though, is that both investment banks and private equity firms have their sights set on the same goal: maximizing profits for investors. But they do so from different directions.

Effective deal tracking is no easy task. It requires diligence and the proper tools to keep everything in order and flowing in the right direction. You have to delegate and communicate with the right people, all while conducting due diligence and managing different personalities and operations.

Nitin Kumar, a seasoned C-level operating executive and management consultant in the TMT sector, discusses how to create integration strategies better suited to modern business environments.

DealRoom's CEO and Founder, Kison Patel, was recently accepted into Forbes Technology Council

All aspects of the M&A lifecycle require employees to work in teams. The efficiency of these teams greatly influences the value extracted from the deal. There are two hundred and fifty characteristics of work teams that correlate to higher performance, but there are two primary ones that researchers have discovered lead to considerably higher, measurable performance.

Al Ansari, a veteran divestiture and integration advisor currently assisting Cisco with the development of their divestiture methodology, discusses the strategies, decisions and planning behind divestitures.

DealRoom's CEO and Founder recently presented on Agile M&A at the 2019 Silicon Valley Scrum(mit)

DealRoom was proud to sponsor Tutoring Chicago's inaugural Celebrity Spelling Bee! Tutoring Chicago is a private, non-profit organization that offers free one-on-one tutoring services to an average of 700+ students in grades 1 - 6 every week.

These DealRoom software help guides review the requests, documents, groups, and analytics tabs in detail.

Google's Principle of Corporate Development Integration discusses the company's modern approach to M&A, from due diligence to integration.

M&A professionals and stakeholders deserve a platform designed for their needs and specific pain points. While traditional CRM software can be useful to other industries, the high-pressure, complex and ever-changing nature of the M&A industry calls for something more advanced and targeted.

The lesson here is a simple one related to human nature: people will follow the leader if they believe in the leader and his/her mission.

SAFe is a framework for businesses that focuses on navigating “transformation challenges” in ways that allow for improved quality, efficiency, productivity, and employee satisfaction. SAFe can be used to help integrate multiple legacy companies at once.

DealRoom helps teams manage every part of due diligence from start to finish. Your data storage, diligence tracking, and communication tools are all on one integrated platform.

Typical VDR providers all offer the same thing and they have been the go to solution for data storage for years. But do they create more problems than they solve and is there a better process out there?

The value placed around integration must come from the top down. We already know the major reasons deals fail is due to poor integration planning and execution; therefore, in addition to developing proven, standardized templates and processes, companies must hold integration practitioners and practices in the highest regard.

Virtual data rooms can cost anywhere between $500 and $10,000. As data room evolve with new innovative technologies, are you left paying too much?‍‍

Innovating the M&A due diligence process has been slow moving. However, technology trends are evolving and creating deals that are more secure, successful and efficient. ‍

Without doubt, the single greatest barrier to the adoption of new IT tools is inertia. In many companies, employees have been using the same internal tools for many years.

Accelerating your integration often comes down to early planning, process management, and the tool, or tools, used to make your process management more effective.

Agile project management methodologies are more often embraced by the IT and manufacturing sectors than by Corporate Development teams. Further helping Agile’s cause in these disciplines is that their own products are developed in an Agile-like manner. This does not mean, however, that Agile’s principles cannot be applied to Corporate Development and the world of M&A and its stakeholders.

Data storage is everything. Most businesses are made up of information in the form of documents, graphics, emails, presentations, CRMs, spreadsheets and more. The applications that help a business run smoothly require copious amounts of storage.

Culture plays a critical role in deal speed and Agile methodologies can help. Moving away from a predetermined plan or chain of events and becoming more flexible, adaptive to change, and small-task oriented will help all stakeholders navigate the waters of M&A more effectively, saving both time and energy...and ultimately, money.

M&A is a meticulous business. It requires a thorough process, swift decision making, and strategic planning. During diligence, information that is highly confidential is gathered, which requires the utmost security and control.

If there ever was an industry that needed project management software, it would be M&A. Deals are infamously known for being time consuming, complicated, and extremely intricate, yet constantly happening.

Whether you are shopping for due diligence software for M&A or other data sensitive realms, there are four central areas to consider: security, ease of use, cost, and the opinions of industry insiders.

Our objective is to provide small, practical steps that can help executives as they work to introduce Agile into the workplace and disrupt the common Waterfall approach.

In business terms, due diligence is the research and analysis of a company or organization done in preparation for a business transaction, such as a potential acquirer evaluates a target company and its assets.

Employee productivity is at the forefront of all business leaders’ minds, but what happens when working more doesn’t equate to being more productive?

In any deal, whether buy-side or sell-side, or if it involves an investment bank, private equity firm, or corporate development business, there are a lot of necessary steps to take. There are many hands involved, confidential information shared, and hard decisions to make.

As the capabilities of IT deployments and infrastructures evolve, so are the features that virtual data room providers offer.

Let’s be frank: change management is often the neglected child of the M&A family. Some might even view change management as trivial when compared with other burdensome tasks of M&A; however, this could not be further from the truth. In fact, poor practices related to change management have long been the achilles heel of mergers and acquisitions.

Most C-suite executives turn to mergers and acquisitions to jump-start growth or for financial gain, but without these clear systems in place deals often (70% of the time) fail - whether during negotiation, diligence, or integration.

The process of due diligence is often classified as chaotic, stressful, and fast-paced and, historically, nothing drastic has been done to disrupt the way this procedure is approached. We now know, however, Agile methodologies for M&A practitioners have proven to improve diligence speed and quality.

Investment bankers rely on data room analytics to gauge buyer activity. Some bankers even restrict bulk downloading to capture incremental download activity. Restricting bulk downloads makes the experience agonizing for buyers and slows down their diligence process.

Say goodbye to answering duplicate requests. With the help of machine learning, the system will pull up previously related documents and responses.

Unorganized communication is a common issue during due diligence. But it doesn't have to be. With the right project management software, communication can be efficient and organized.

Imagine a world where analytics can not only make work more efficient, but can also make banks smarter by providing data to help better understand buyer behavior.

It is predicted that in the next year we will see not only an increase in mergers and acquisitions, but also an increase in the size of these business deals. With more and larger deals taking place, organizations are becoming necessarily smarter about how to navigate the process of M&A.

In this episode, Kison interviews business consultant Joseph Feldman, who works with middle companies on acquisitions.

Typically when you hire an investment bank your looking at their track record, industry expertise, relationships with buyers, maybe even a culture fit. The following distinguish the difference between just good and great investment banks.

DealRoom vs. FirmRoom: Which platform is right for your business? At Day 1, we’ve launched a new stand-alone, enterprise-grade data room based on our successful project management platform, DealRoom. Both tools provide businesses with a centralized, secure, and transparent work location that can help them become more productive, methodical, and efficient.

In this episode, Kison interviews corporate and business development consultant Judah Karkowsky. They discuss best ways to approach cultural integration, handling ownership issues, due diligence surprises, confidential data protection, and more.

Using a per-page pricing model can be very expensive and can lead to unplanned additional costs. With the right flat-rate terms, you can avoid surprise bills and end the need to constantly monitor data usage.

M&A deals can overwhelm buyers & sellers, burying them in an avalanche of paper, repeat requests, & wait-time. However, with efficiency & effectiveness at its core, DealRoom provides a smarter approach to the complex practice of M&A.

Broken promises and technology that does not live up to the marketing hype are just two results of poorly chosen technology. The decision-making process is now more complex than ever since organizations want representation of all the stakeholders that will either use or benefit from the technology.

In this episode, we explore M&A in the tech world. Paul’s experience includes more than 25 years of experience in tech industry with companies such as Hewlett Packard and Adobe Systems. He shares his knowledge on common strategy errors that lead companies to failure and the best ways to build integration plans for acquisition teams.

There are 100s of documents to upload to a data room, a tracker to update with what’s been added, emails, follow-up emails, more uploads, updating a tracker again ect. The solution to this is to automate the workflow so management teams spend far less time answering requests and stay focused on running their business.

Agile M&A practices transform M&A into a simplified, efficient set of processes. Once a business adapts Agile M&A practices, the company can transform into an agile, data-driven enterprise without sacrificing quality or taking on additional risk.

Are you an “old school” M&A practitioner? Being “old school” means that maybe you are holding on to traditional practices, because they work for you. These methods are tried and true, and have been proven over the years. However, there are many new ways in which to approach the M&A process.

M&A professionals often find themselves jumping between spreadsheets, email, and the data room during due diligence.

Agile M&A promises to identify and eliminate waste that otherwise contributes to poor customer service, lost business, higher business costs and lost employee productivity.

In this episode, Kison interviews mergers and acquisitions attorney Luke Fedlam, who shares his knowledge on working with outside counsel.

Back and forth emails can easily overwhelm a management team.

Typical project management tools are not efficient.

Although Agile is considered to have originated and have specific application to the technology world, it did not originate in IT.

Biondi shares his personal experience on the AdEspresso and Hootsuite merger.

DealRoom Listed in FINRA's Compliance Vendor Directory

Advising Buyers, Business Strategies, and Setting Clear Objectives

It starts out straightforward: You kick off due diligence by creating a spreadsheet with the list of...

In this podcast, Jain walks through the differences between M&A in private equity and investment banking, proprietary and auction deals, and integration planning.

Agile M&A is a management system derived from Agile software development and Lean manufacturing

Agile seems to be a corporate buzzword.

Scott Hile, an experienced M&A professional, shares his experiences from both sides of M&A, including common transaction concerns and challenges.

Several large virtual data room providers are focused on generating revenue by charging for every individual page used in M&A transaction.

In this podcast, Bacon goes into detail on the realities of post-close integration, how it affects employees, and most importantly, why communication is vital for a successful post-close integration.

In this podcast, Gambs gives advice on picking advisors and investments, and how to learn from failures in your career.

What should you look for when you pick an advisor for your deal team?

Like entering into a romantic relationship, an M&A deal is a lot about finding “the right fit.”

“This is the first time I’ve been acquired by a company that felt like it had a soul.”

10 Reasons to Outsource Innovation in Agile M&A

If you work in M&A, you know due diligence is a costly and time-consuming process.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is valuable because it captures intellectual capital.

Paul Tennola, CFO of Paynet and M&A corporate development professional of 29 years, share his knowledge on bolt-on transactions as compared to new platforms.

Sean Peace tell a captivating story about selling and exiting an unprofitable business in a unique niche.

In this podcast, Maddipatla discusses his sell side experience, how to wisely choose investments, and post-deal integration.

The evolution of financial services is not slowing down.

In this podcast, DellaFranco focuses on his team's unique due diligence approach, and how to determine a strategy for synergies and a successful integration.

Andrew Jordan is a Principal at Riveron Consulting where he provides transaction advisory services. He’s had his hand in mergers and acquisitions for the last 8 years and has incredible insight regarding quality of earnings (Q of E) and M&A deals.

In this podcast, Kaesar discusses the importance of interpersonal relationships for deal success, post-close surprises, how to learn from a deal gone wrong, and when to just walk away.