... more than half of all acquisitions do not provide value to the shareholders of the acquiring company ... Mergers often fail to deliver expected benefits due to poor implementation planning and execution ...

Identifying targets and developing an M. & A. strategy

Key to success :

• clarity of strategy (objectives of the merger well defined - be clear on goals and intent);
• rigorous planning;
• detailed execution plan

A comprehensive Due Diligence process :

a state-of-the-art and rigorous pre-deal process based on numerous actual experiences

Improving Acquisition Integration :

• An implementation team in place early
• Major types of acquisition integration :
• Stand-Alone : rather easy to manage, but difficult for generating value.
• Absorption : most common form, useful to strengthen a core business.
• Best of Both : beware ! Likely to be divisive by creating winners and losers.
• Transformation : using the acquisition to drive change, strong leadership required !
• Possibility to go a level deeper, differents parts of the acquired company could require a different type of integration strategy.