This is the second installment of a 3-part series:

• Part 1 – Introduction
• Part 2 – Acquisition and Integration Phases
• Part 3 – Acquisition Team; Integration Team

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The Acquisition Phase: 4 steps

The acquisition phase consists of pre-Deal Close activities. But what does that really mean? Frankly, I don’t know; nah just kidding.

The acquisition phase (i.e. everything pre-Deal Close) mainly focuses on whether the acquisition makes sense strategically and financially. The transaction is analyzed from several vantage points: business development, strategy, cultural fit, valuation, ROI, synergies, etc.

I liken it to flirting. You start small, expressing some interest with another company. The initial interest turns into a casual relationship. Gradually the relationship becomes more involved. That’s when the seller discloses more information, and the buyer renews his interest. Then you get to kiss, date, and finally wed. You get the picture…

The nuptial dance between the seller and the buyer during this phase can be broken down into 4 steps:
read on »

This is the first installment of a 3-part series:

• Part 1 – Introduction
• Part 2 – Acquisition and Integration Phases
• Part 3 – Acquisition Team; Integration Team

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As promised in my last entry, here is an excerpt of my presentation at St John’s University, New York on April 30, 2008.

Introduction:

M&A is sexy. I just have to pronounce “M&A” and it invariably produces either sparks in my interlocutor’s eye, or a dull look.

Well, dull looks aside, let’s focus on the crowd at least remotely attracted by M&A. Most of the time they see M&A as 1) a dollar amount and 2) a public announcement that a company just bought another one.

There are two implications here. First that the M&A deal is a mere valuation of the business that just got acquired (stay with me, stay with me). Second, it reinforces the impression that with the announcement, everything is complete.

Well, it says “Merger & Acquisition” not “Acquisition” only. That’s right, the public announcement only closes the “Acquistion” bit. So now the two businesses have to be merged, or integrated, and that’s what the “Merger” piece is all about.

Realize that M&A is a process: emphasis on process. I’ll walk you through a high-level view of what that process looks like. Then we’ll have a quick look at the expertise and people necessary to carry out this process successfully.

The M&A process in a nutshell

In a nutshell, the M&A process goes like that: a confidential acquisition phase, followed by a public (usually) integration phase (ok, merger – well, not always).

Between the two phases, a public announcement (e.g. news release) is usually released. It tells everybody who purchased who, and for what reason. The announcement marks a significant milestone in the entire M&A process. We call this Deal Close (DC).

Deal Close separates both acquisition and integration phases. It’s also a very tangible milestone, since it is achieved with the signature of a Purchase Agreement. Yes, I’m talking about a paper document that is actually signed with a real pen. That’s how tangible this is.

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Proceed to Part 2 – Acquisition and Integration Phases

I can’t believe that I left this blog gathering dust for so long.

Truth is, it kind of got busy over here. Can’t get too specific of course, but I learned quite a bit about the organizational framework necessary to run internal IT M&A functions. More on this shortly hopefully.

In any event I’m scheduled to give a lecture on this topic at St John’s University in New York City end of April. So at the very least I should be able to post the lecture outline or some of my notes here.

After the network printer, light comes at the end of the tunnel with an affordable, consumer-based network scanner.  After the “HP Launches Networked Document Scanner” article my gut reaction is: what took you so long?

Then, knowing HP’s taste for proprietary drivers and UIs, I’d say the jury is still out on how this is going to work.  Their scanning and imaging software, HP Director, always sucked and still sucks.  Also, in the old days, I  tried sharing an all-in-one devices hooked up to a desktop computer.  It was impossible since HP’s driver would not allow it.  Nice!

HP makes great products, but sometimes their engineers go a bit overboard and reinvent the wheel.  Why not ditch HP Director and work to integrate their hardware with other successful software products?  How about Picassa for heaven’s sake?  I’d love to have it work with my HP scanner.

But enough about that.  So, the HP Scanject 7650n is networked.  You mean wireless?  No, no, no don’t tell me I still have to run that 10Base-T cable to it.  The whole point of having it with networking is to hide it somewhere so no one can see it.  If I have to run a network cable to it, now that’s a drag.

Let’s wait to see how this thing work once more details are available.  At the very least this is a step in the right direction

Some people look forward to attending meetings and others don’t. Today, I’ll speak about 3 ways to attract those who don’t.

Morning meeting: offer breakfast (lunch for late morning)

Feed them, and they’ll come. read on »