The most recent Transaction Advisors Institute (TAI) M&A conference was held at the University of Chicago in late June and covered topics ranging from current challenges impacting complex transactions to innovative methods to improve deal performance. Corporate development leaders, in-house M&A counsel and private equity investors from a range of industries and regions shared first-hand … Read more
Introduction The landscape of M&A is undergoing significant changes, driven by evolving market dynamics and technological advancements. The traditional approach of large, one-off deals is giving way to smaller, more frequent programmatic ones that involve more flexibility and agility. Similarly, the reliance on advisory-led deals is decreasing, with more companies opting for own-sourced deals that … Read more
Introduction: Playbooks, virtual data rooms, and project management platforms all address the never ending quest to ease the overwhelming and disjointed nature of due diligence. Undoubtedly, advancements in technology have allowed for the largest improvements. More specifically, platforms designed for M&A deal management eliminate siloed teams and disjointed communications that have long plagued deal flow. Moreover, leveraging … Read more
Properly leveraging M&A software is one of the foundational elements of building internal M&A capabilities and extracting deal value, but with so many offerings on the market, the process of selecting the best one has become cumbersome. Unfortunately, the price of choosing the wrong deal management software is quite high. According to Bain & Company, current key trends … Read more
Introduction: Located in North Carolina, CREO, Inc. is an innovative management consulting firm that provides expertise throughout the M&A process to companies engaging in inorganic growth. CREO is led by Susan Acker-Walsh, who is both co-founder and CEO. Acker-Walsh herself boasts a 35 year background in Corporate Development, leadership, and transactions related work. Though the … Read more
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
While the benefits of a programmatic approach to mergers and acquisitions are nothing new, the recent numbers touted by companies who practice this approach are quite impressive. McKinsey & Company recently reported in its McKinsey Quarterly that deal value “rose more than 300 percent in the first half of 2021 compared with the first half of 2020.” Moreover, the … Read more
“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency”. – Bill Gates. With more technology entering the M&A space, practitioners must proceed with caution and fight the urge … Read more