Kalle Kilpi 
Programmatic deal sourcing starts with determining what you want to acquire. That is often easier said than done. Different stakeholders have various urgent strategic priorities, attractive target companies, views about market changes, and other inputs that all make compelling arguments towards going in different directions. To bring clarity to the M&A Program (and everyone on the … Read more
McKinsey’s study of 2,000 US public companies over 20 years showed that the shareholder value of companies relying on a Programmatic M&A approach performed better than comparable companies relying on Opportunistic Deals, big-bang Mega Deals or an Organic approach (doing little to no M&A at all). Programmatic M&A involves following a disciplined approach to making many similar, smaller deals that accrue to … Read more
Our newest platform, Pipeline+ is a CRM purpose-built for M&A. We have been busy adding exciting new features into this centralized, intuitive tool that helps M&A professionals manage relationships, build a pipeline of opportunities, and report on real progress.
Note: There is a link to the live Synergy Planner at the end of this page. M&A due diligence has traditionally focused on skimming through countless legal agreements, financial documents, board meeting minutes, and other materials to spot red flags that might reduce the value of the acquired company. This due diligence is often performed by … Read more
Traditional M&A reporting – on your pipeline, on the progress of acquisitions, or on the status of integrations – is typically tedious and time-consuming. The deliverables are static, short-lived, crowded with irrelevant information and are often missing the right pipeline metrics or progress information. Preparing for weekly meetings or presentations to leadership turns into lengthy … Read more
Not too long ago, corporate development departments were focused almost exclusively on acquisitions. Now, these teams run a whole spectrum of deal types including corporate venturing, divestments, joint ventures, alliances and partnerships. Additionally, companies have started to systematize key processes beyond the core deal sourcing, M&A due diligence and central integration management. Now, key value capture and … Read more
In looking to establish an M&A process, it’s important to start with the basics and add detail gradually. A common mistake is to “copy & paste” a sophisticated best practice process and to attempt layering it upon your organization. While the process might look great on paper, in reality there are likely to be too … Read more
People usually love the idea of standardizing their M&A playbook and building an “M&A machine” or an “acquisition factory.” However, the immediate follow-up questions are: How much you can really standardize the M&A process? Does it depend on whether I do many smaller deals or a large mega deal? Smaller deals typically follow a more standard … Read more
As an acquisitive company, it’s important to have the right resources to support your pipeline process. Having a robust tool implemented can help your team: Below are the 5 things your team needs to construct a winning acquisition pipeline: 1. Inactive Deal Archiving When a deal dies or becomes inactive, it’s important to keep the … Read more
In the mergers and acquisitions landscape there is very little margin for error, which could explain why more deals fail than meet or exceed goals. The number of factors contributing to failed acquisitions is certainly a long list, and applies to every stage of the process, from M&A pipeline management through post-merger integration. This post focuses on one crucial … Read more