The process of finding a buyer for a business unit and negotiating the terms of the purchase agreement is done by seemingly a mysterious group of executives and attorneys. As to be expected, the Deal Team is looking at the large corporate picture with certain financial goals and a somewhat defined scope as outlined the [...]

Mergers and acquisitions continue to be prominent in today’s business world.  A significant challenge to most organizations that are in the market to acquire or divest a business unit is how to address the Information Technology requirements.  Unlike an acquisition whereby the entire company is being acquired, an acquisition of an individual business unit(s) poses [...]

In my experience, companies that have grown largely through acquisition have fallen far short of their expectations. The truth is that more than half of all of the companies moving through this process actually destroy shareholder value. Over the last 30 years, I have encountered three primary reasons for this failure.
The First Reason for Failure
The [...]

The history of mergers and acquisitions in the United States is comprised of a series of five distinct waves of activity. Each wave occurred at a different time, and each exhibited some unique characteristics related to the nature of the activity, the sources of funding for the activity, and to some extent, differing levels of success [...]

This recent wave of mergers and acquisitions has prompted businesses to get scale fast and place themselves in a position to reap considerable benefits from “first mover advantages.” Speed to market is a critical competitive differentiation in all businesses, regardless of their size and industry classification. Going it alone can slow you down and very [...]

Many technology challenges exist when a company makes the decision to divest (carve-out) a business unit. One area that requires special attention is electronic communication in the form of email.

How often have you seen a merger or acquisition that made perfect sense not pan out? In many cases, deal makers are simply ignoring the increasing role of information technology and paying the price.

Technology Due Diligence is the introductory posting of an ongoing series on performing IT due diligence. In this first section, we provide a brief commentary of the purposes and principles of conducting an IT due diligence, and layout the foundation and structure of the series.

The Current State Evaluation posting is the 3rd posting in an ongoing series on performing M&A Technology Due Diligence. In this posting, we overview the Current State Evaluation and introduce four areas of concentrated discovery that comprise its practice, known as IT Due Diligence Focus Areas.