Diligence

On this episode, Kison interviews Jeff Desroches, VP of Corporate Development at Atlas Copco, about how to identify issues during diligence in M&A. Jeff is a high-impact Corporate Development executive adept at identifying, developing and executing strategic growth opportunities. He’s a resourceful problem solver with proven ability to manage large, cross-functional teams to drive complex commercial and technical programs with extensive experience in international dealmaking.

Due diligence is defined as the research and analysis of a company or organization done in preparation for a business transaction (such as a corporate merger or purchase of securities).

What is management due diligence, and how does it differ from customary or traditional due diligence? At DealRoom we help many companies organizing their due diligence process and in this article we'll answer this question.

When selling your business, there are severWhen selling your business, there are several advantages to having first-class due diligence documents prepared in advance. The mere process of putting these documents together will give you a good overview of your own business and where some of its potential weaknesses lie.al advantages to having first-class due diligence documents prepared in advance.

In much the same way that buyers of businesses need to conduct due diligence to extract maximum value from transactions, sellers can maximize the value they gain from selling their business through conducting sell-side due diligence.

Definitionally, deep dive due diligence is an enhanced version of due diligence with level three investigations of a company or individual including an analysis of all public data, also known as "boots on the ground" for investigators.

In transactions where managers say that deals weren’t a success because of ‘cultural issues’, ‘paying too much for the target’ or ‘problems surrounding integration,’ it very often meaIn transactions where managers say that deals weren’t a success because of ‘cultural issues’, ‘paying too much for the target’ or ‘problems surrounding integration,’ it very often means that they failed to conduct sufficient due diligence.ns that they failed to conduct sufficient due diligence.

The purpose of due diligence is, in general terms, to sort the detail from the sales pitch.

“If you're pulling HR in after you announced the deal, then you're missing a lot of opportunities to help realize deal value earlier on in the process.”

Hundreds of investment bankers, law firms, and M&A brokers turn to DealRoom when conducting due diligence. The feedback provided by these M&A practitioners is that, more often than not, financial due diligence is the area of due diligence that requires most attention.

Nothing valuable comes easy. That’s the logic behind due diligence. In a sense, an in-depth due diligence process should bring challenges. It comes with the territory.

Operational due diligence may be the most forward-looking kind of due diligence that exists. The aim here is not to look over several years of past performance, but rather to project into the future and assess how value creation will be sustained into the future with the target company’s operations.

Tax is arguably the least discussed of all motives for conducting mergers and acquisitions. Managers undertaking M&A tend to be less keen to espouse the tax benefits of a deal - probably wishing to avoid accusations of tax avoidance - than they are to talk up how it gives them a platform for future growth.

Mergers and acquisitions can be an excellent way of adding to the human capital of a business. When Goldman Sachs acquired J. Aron & Co., a small trading company, in the early 1980s, one of the traders they took on ended up being the company’s CEO. This isn’t uncommon.

These days, every company is to some extent a technology company. Despite this reality, a solid understanding of technology and how it drives value in a company evades most people from non-IT backgrounds.

These days, every company is to some extent a technology company. Despite this reality, a solid understanding of technology and how it drives value in a company evades most people from non-IT backgrounds.

Although there are common themes running through all due diligence processes, private equity due diligence processes tend to bring specific challenges.

Compliance is an expensive business. According to one estimate, large firms pay an average of $10,000 per employee in compliance costs per year.

Preparation is the key to a successful diligence. It is important to know what to expect and the context of what to explore. It is important to know what to expect and the context of what to explore. This article focuses primarily on technical due diligence best practices and a checklist.

Due diligence is a complex affair that takes in every component of a business.

The well-documented move towards online services during the Covid-19 pandemic brought a few high-profile winners, most notably e-commerce giant Amazon.

This article does not seek to add to this literature. Rather, it seeks to provide practitioners with a set of steps - a framework for successful due diligence that DealRoom has seen the best practitioners use.

The mass retirement of the Baby Boomer generation over the next decade is set to see the bequeathing or sale of an estimated 2.3 million businesses in the United States. There will literally never be a better opportunity to acquire a business for individuals or firms looking to take over The mass retirement of the Baby Boomer generation over the next decade is set to see the bequeathing or sale of an estimated 2.3 million businesses in the United States. There will literally never be a better opportunity to acquire a business for individuals or firms looking to take over the reigns at an established company.the reigns at an established company.

Few areas of due diligence call for as much attention as that of healthcare. A detailed understanding of exactly what’s being acquired is always important but the complexity of healthcare means that experienced hands in M&A won’t be enough to conduct the due diligence process.

More than twenty years after the transaction closed, the merger between telecom giants Vodafone and Mannesmann still ranks as the largest M&A deal of all time.

The current approach for managing due diligence processes during M&A can be greatly improved, and needs to be as deal continue to increase in quantity and size.

In this episode of the M&A Science podcast, Kison interviews Ken Bond, Head of Corporate Development at Cetera Financial Group on how he structures teams approaching diligence.

It doesn’t matter if you buy the best company in the world, if integration is not done properly, the value will be lost. In this webinar, Jim Buckley, Vice President, Mergers and Acquisitions Integration at VMware, talks about how to run an integration-led confirmatory diligence process.

The challenges that face retail companies all over the world are well known. Most outlooks for the industry are far from rosy, with a recent UBS report suggesting that 80,000 retail stores will close by the end of 2026.