M&A Science

This is an interview that we had during our M&A virtual summit. Hosted by Jill Harrison, VP of Silverline venture, this interview is all about positive employee experience and how it impacts the success of M&A deals. Joining this discussion are our 3 speakers Cole Breidenbach- Head of M&A Integration at Okta, Josh Olson- Head of solution sales at the Americas at VMware, Amy Gannaway- Vice President, Global Compensation, Benefits and HRIS at VMware.

This interview is a rewind from our M&A virtual summit, which was held in June. The topic of discussion is leading M&A with integration, featuring our guest speakers Carlos Cesta, Corporate Development/M&A at Presidio and Javid Moosaji, global head of partner channels, platform solutions and transformation at Travelex, hosted by Stacy Hendricks, senior director at Alvarez and Marsal.

Had a great interview last week with Ajit Sane, Director IT M&A at Agilent Technologies. Ajit is an M&A professional with multiple years of experience in leading acquisitions, integrations and divestitures. Our topic of discussion is how to wind a business down with minimal customer and people disruption.

Some topics we covered include the planning behind a wind down, challenges you can expect, and protecting your assets. Ajit reminds the audience your company's biggest assets are your employees and your customers, so it's important to prioritize them.

In this episode, we're sharing an interview we had in our M&A virtual conference that talks about how to modernize IMO, and building a synergy plan that actually delivers. This interview was hosted by Jonathan Shiery, Director at Guidehouse, with the guest panel Bill Clarkin, Head, M&A at BMO Financial Group.

They discuss the seven principles you should follow in order to modernize IMO including flexibility, the importance of documentation, and setting a hard deadline. Learn from their extensive and impressive backgrounds and hear about experiences they've learned from that you can avoid.

Last week was a great interview with Neil McNamara, Co-founder of Virtas Partners, which is an advisory firm specializing in preparing companies financially and operationally for M&A. The topic of discussion is how to plan divestiture from an accounting perspective.

First thing that you should do is set up your deal perimeter. Clearly define what you're selling so that you can create the structure of the financial data needed to get the deal done. The complexity of the financial data varies depending on what type of exit you are doing.

Carve outs can be very difficult because most of the time, you are selling something that has never been looked at as a standalone entity. Therefore, you will have to build a standalone financial statement without any financial historical information.

In case you didn't know, in the middle of this pandemic, we were able to pull off a successful M&A Virtual Conference. One of the sessions that we had was hosted by Ben Sutton, senior manager of corporate development at NCR corporation. This session was all about Aligning Strategy with Your M&A Process, featuring our two guest speakers: Scott Kaeser, executive VP of corporate development, US security services at GardaWorld and Sean Corcoran, VP of corporate development and M&A at Neustar, inc.

It is absolutely critical that everyone understands the rationale behind the deal. In order for everyone to fully understand the strategy, you have to simplify things and let them know what you are trying to achieve. Especially on a very large team and the integration process takes years to finish, knowing the true north of that deal will keep teams aligned.

Last week's interview was with Ivan Golubic, former VP Corporate Development at Goodyear. Prior to Goodyear, Ivan spent 10 years with Whirlpool, Deloitte and Ford in various finance and M&A roles. Our topic of discussion is how to make joint ventures more successful.

To make joint ventures more successful, first you need to define what success means to you. Each party has their own rationale so you need to find your objectives. Hire a third party consultant to create a strict governance structure. And create an exit strategy so if things don't work out, both parties know what to do and preserves their relationship.

On this recap from the M&A Science Virtual Summit, Kison moderates a panel featuring Devorah Bertucci, Director of Corporate Development at Microsoft, and Kim Jones, Senior HR M&A Manager at Microsoft. They discuss the topic of how to bridge the gap between corporate development and integration functions.

Making an acquisition successful and creating value for both sides isn't easy. There needs to be a partnership with corporate development and integration that drives negotiations to structure a deal for success. Topics covered in this panel include identifying early signs of a bad fit, balancing different company cultures, and how a role in corporate development impacts views on culture.

This is a session from our M&A Virtual Conference which was held on June 10 and 11. The topic of discussion is avoiding valuation surprises and accounting for M&A transactions, hosted by PJ Patel, co-CEO and Senior Managing Director at Valuation Research Corporation. Our guest for this interview is the Vice President of Corporate Strategy and M&A at Church and Dwight, Brian Buchert.

Together, Brian and PJ discuss how to not overpay in deals, explain why valuing a company 10 years from now is a joke, and explain the effects of a long term recession. Learn tips on how to avoid common valuation mistakes, what the aftermath of COVID-19 may look like, and how valuation requires their own proprietary metric.

Last week's interview was with Erik Levy, Group Head Corp Dev and M&A at DMGT PLC. Erik has completed over 150 acquisitions, minority and venture investments and strategic partnerships. The topic of discussion is how successful Diligence and Integration planning frames success of M&A and valuation.

Kison and Erik cover topics such as different approaches to valuation, causes of failures, and the keys to success.