Book Description
A comprehensive guide to the world of mergers and acquisitions
Why do so many M&A transactions fail? And what drives the success of those deals that are consummated? Robert Bruner explains that M&A can be understood as a response by managers to forces of turbulence in their environment. Despite the material failure rates of mergers and acquisitions, those pulling the trigger on key strategic decisions can make them work if they spend great care and rigor in the development of their M&A deals. By addressing the key factors of M&A success and failure, Applied Mergers and Acquisitions can help readers do this. Written by one of the foremost thinkers and educators in the field, this invaluable resource teaches readers the art and science of M&A valuation, deal negotiation, and bargaining, and provides a framework for considering tradeoffs in an effort to optimize the value of any M&A deal. Applied Mergers and Acquisitions is part of a complete suite of resources on M&A that includes a workbook and a CD-ROM with additional spreadsheets.
Robert F. Bruner, MBA, DBA (Charlottesville, VA), is the Distinguished Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School at the University of Virginia and Executive Director of the Batten Institute. He directs the Darden School's executive education course on mergers and acquisitions, and teaches the popular MBA elective on that topic. He holds a BA from Yale University, and a MBA and DBA from Harvard University.0471395064 A comprehensive guide to the world of mergers and acquisitions 0471395064 A comprehensive guide to the world of mergers and acquisitions
Why do so many M&A transactions fail? And what drives the success of those deals that are consummated? Robert Bruner explains that M&A can be understood as a response by managers to forces of turbulence in their environment. Despite the material failure rates of mergers and acquisitions, those pulling the trigger on key strategic decisions can make them work if they spend great care and rigor in the development of their M&A deals. By addressing the key factors of M&A success and failure, Applied Mergers and Acquisitions can help readers do this. Written by one of the foremost thinkers and educators in the field, this invaluable resource teaches readers the art and science of M&A valuation, deal negotiation, and bargaining, and provides a framework for considering tradeoffs in an effort to optimize the value of any M&A deal. Applied Mergers and Acquisitions is part of a complete suite of resources on M&A that includes a workbook and a CD-ROM with additional spreadsheets.
Robert F. Bruner, MBA, DBA (Charlottesville, VA), is the Distinguished Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School at the University of Virginia and Executive Director of the Batten Institute. He directs the Darden School's executive education course on mergers and acquisitions, and teaches the popular MBA elective on that topic. He holds a BA from Yale University, and a MBA and DBA from Harvard University.
Customer Reviews:
Very comprehenive in an acedemic way.......2007-04-25
Very complete but not a "how to.." guide.
A great and thought provoking resource.
Should be on every investment banker book shelf
Very Difficult to Follow.......2007-03-19
I found the book to be very difficult to follow in that it seems to be written for graduate level courses on the subject, with very little practical application. The book provides a detailed literature review but it is a bit dated. There is nothing about the rise of private equity and hedge funds in recent years. The book would also benefit from the use of more examples. Its sheer size and number of chapters makes it a bit disjointed.
You should own this book..........2007-02-14
... if you have any interest in M&A. But your professors must have already told you so!
Simply the best text on M&A.......2007-01-27
After attending an executive program in mergers and acquisitions, I decided to purchase this book after reviewing a variety of books on the subject. I also own Arzac's book, but it is only applicable to valuation.
This book is simply the best text on M&A and it has served as a nice supplament to program that I attended. Between the program and reading this book, I now feel like I am an expert on the subject.
Arzac's book on valuation provides the final topping on the subject manner.
Nice Nice Book.......2006-04-10
very nice overview on MnA. Good introduction and provides references for those who wanna dig into specific topics.
However, this is a general overview for a wide range of MnA topics, you will not gain a specific expertise from this book.
For me, the most useful way of learning a topic like MnA is by actually looking at spreadsheets and exhibits instead of reading bunge of writings. This book has many nice exhibits/tables to demonstrate the calculations, so after the reading, I can look at the exhibits/spreadsheets to see if I understand how the numbers are calculated.
this should be the first read, arzac should be followed up to gain a more solid background in valuation.
No comments on the CDROM, I didn't buy it.
Book Description
Provides a practical, 10-step process for managing the human aspect of an M&A
M&A activity is higher than ever with acquisitions becoming an important part of every company's growth strategy. The industries heavily engaging in this activity are high-tech, emerging technologies, and utilities.
The M&A Transition Guide is written for executives, managers, and HR professionals involved with any transaction that moves employees from one company to another. Poor workforce integration is a main cause for M&A failures and this book helps managers make the M&A transition a more positive one by providing a plan of action for the integration that focuses on ten critical steps. These steps encompass the entire M&A process from due diligence to employee retention strategies.
Download Description
Provides a practical, 10-step process for managing the human aspect of an M
Customer Reviews:
Essential guide for HR staff.......2001-04-24
Anyone who has watched the matketplace over the last ten years has observed a couple of trends:
- merger and acquisition activity is on an ever-accelerating uptrend, and
- many mergers fail.
Analysis of the failures in M&A typically point to the difficulty of blending disparate cultures.
Hanson has codified her deep experience in managing the HR aspects of mergers and acquisitions. She has taken a complex and delicate topic, the merger of workforces with different cultures and backgrounds, and created a framework and approach that can be applied to this activity to assure a solid result.
This is a solid piece of work that belongs in the library of every HR professional.
Amazon.com
Five Frogs on a Log is a practical and easy-to-absorb manual for corporate leaders facing those intense periods of total transformation that seem--for better or for worse--to define today's business world. Written by Mark L. Feldman and Michael F. Spratt, both partners and managing directors of PricewaterhouseCoooper's global M&A consulting division, the book aims to help managers through the "jolts, curves, and emotional potholes" that inevitably accompany such large-scale restructuring. "The high-priced bankers and lawyers exit with the close," they write, "leaving management to confront the challenge of producing results that justify the price, the added risk, and/or the significant disruption to current operations. To complicate matters, they face what amounts to a new company and a set of unexpected demands that can easily divert them from capturing the value that drove the deal." With help from insightful illustrations and quotations from those who have been there, Feldman and Spratt build upon their basic theory--that speed is of the essence in corporate upheavals of this type--by offering pragmatic solutions for the myriad problems that invariably arise. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
A riddle:
Five frogs are sitting on a log.
Four decide to jump off. How many are left?
Answer: Five
Why?
Because there's a difference between deciding and doing.
Written by Mark L. Feldman and Michael F. Spratt of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Five Frogs on a Log offers readers an entertaining and no-nonsense field guide to the mergers and acquisitions jungle, packed with insight and instruction for executing corporate change and capturing shareholder value. Whether you're buying another company or acquiring a new vision of the future, this book proffers an unconventional perspective and a practical, readily accessible set of solutions to the single greatest challenge facing today's managers: executing rapid transitions ion mergers, acquisitions and gut wrenching change.
Designed for corporate managers and CEOs caught up in the whirlwind of change, every chapter provides accessible ideas and wisdom for navigating the most demanding business transitions. The authors offer a unique hands-on perspective based on their work with top Fortune 500 firms. As they state:
"Increasingly, the companies that win are those that learn faster, act quicker and adapt sooner. They will compress time by making and executing early, informed decisions about economic value creation, ruthless prioritization and focused resource allocation. They will use these decisions to take early firm stands on management deployment, organization structure and culture. Their actions will increasingly be linked to long-term, sustained economic value creation."
The advice and expertise offered in this book can be used to solve a range of operational problems from speeding up new product development to merging two businesses; from changing company culture to repositioning a business in a while new marketplace.
Whatever the challenges and opportunities facing you, your company, your industry, Five Frogs on a Log will move you from deciding to doing.
Customer Reviews:
Definitely Worth Reading.......2007-03-24
My organization is in the process of a major change and reorganization. I found this book to be right on target in identifying the challenges and hurdles that we faced as well as providing some effective solutions to ensure that we do not make the same mistakes that others before us have made. I believe this is an excellent book and a must read for anyone within the organization, not just CEOs.
good for frogs.......2006-07-11
Feldman and Spratt advise lots of CEOs of large corporations as part of their work for PricewaterhouseCoopers (a mergerized mouthful if there ever was one), and those consulting habits show. The book is anecdotal and clever without being practical or useful, even if you're actually contemplating a merger. You will, however, learn the riddle of the five frogs on a log, which in the interest of saving time, we offer here: Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left? Five. Because there's a difference between deciding and doing. "Execution," the authors tell us, "is always more difficult than it seems."
Here's the lesson: Smart advice is timeless. If you do want a quick take on making effective decisions, then consider the very short chapter "The Effective Decision" in Peter Drucker's Managing the Non-profit Corporation (HarperCollins, 1990). Drucker writes sharply about the evils of reaching consensus too quickly, the dangers of not doing your homework, and the fact that decision making always involves risk taking. He also observes that "far too many decisions remain pious intentions." Even more memorable than the frog story.
Very thought provoking.......2002-06-27
This book is an excellent view of the M&A process from a very different angle. Many books cover the mechanics of the process, but this one looks at the outcomes for human beings - our most important assets. I would recommend it highly.
Worth reading.......2002-04-30
Having been on the receiving end of several poorly-executed acquisitions, I much appreciated the authors' vivid descriptions of merger complexity - and their straightforward advice on how to avoid it. Definitely worth reading.
The best of them all.......2002-04-29
My company has been making acquisitions for over twenty years and I think we've read all the merger books in print. "Five Frogs" is the winner when it comes to candid, practical and intuitive advice on how to accelerate through the post-deal transition without destroying shareholder value. Its a fast and easy read that makes its points clearly and with great examples that force you to think intelligently about decisions that must be made and executed quickly. The two chapters on internal and external communications planning and execution alone are worth the price. Our results from following the authors'advice on post-deal priority setting were both powerful and surprisingly painless. We're about to go through the biggest merger in our history and every member of every transition team in both companies now has a copy of "Five Frogs." It's become our merger bible. Also, if you get a chance to hear Feldman speak on the subject, don't miss it. He's an articulate and entertaining speaker who's seen it all. Very motivating.
Book Description
When should you acquire a target or enter a new business? How do you go about structuring and valuing leveraged buyout transactions? What do you do id the application of the weighted average cost of capital approach is not correct? Answers to these commonly encountered valuation problems and more are given right here in this complete valuation toolkit for mergers, buyouts, and restructuring. Enrique Arzac, an internationally recognized authority on the subject, provides an up-to-date, comprehensive synthesis of current valuation theory and practice, including free cash flow valuation, financing and valuation of leveraged buyouts, real option analysis for entry and exit decisions, contract design to resolve disagreements about value, and the valuation of special offer structures.
Customer Reviews:
Hard but very comprenhensive and useful .......2007-06-03
This book is a must for anyone who desires to improve her valuation and modeling skills.
It includes well detailed examples of LBO deal, which is quite rare in the literature.
The computation of the wacc is very comprehensive (may be too much) but the reader does not need to understand it to benefit from the other valuable chapters and demonstrations.
Planet Best.......2006-11-22
I have read many many books on Valuation for investment banking purposes. Many of them have good theories and decent number crunching. But this is the best one in regard technical aspects of finance. It's not for everyone. The book really is for practioner and MBA students who want go ahead of their peers. If you are through with this book nobody can beat you in valuation world.
Enrique I would really want you to cover Project Finance in your next addition.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and liked the technical cocenpts especially the explanation about fomulas and derivations at the end of the book. Moreover the book is absolutely to the point and covers analytical part of Valution for M&A, LBO and Restructuring.
Great Work Enrique.
Manu
For those who love going into the detail..........2006-06-20
This is one of the best books I have read to date on Valuation. It spanks various methodologies and speaks to their differences. It goes into the detail and stays there to provide the depth necessary to get a intuative understanding. WARNING: not for those who do not like math. You can follow the derivations and I found it very good practice and reinforcement to learning the concepts.
Buy it and try it on a company in the news.
Cool!
OK but very technical.......2006-03-03
Overall, the book covers relevant M&A material but it's difficult to read. Coming from a finance background, I was looking for a reference book to be used at work. There are other books that are more user-friendly. Recommendation: get Applied Mergers & Acquisitions from Wiley Finance instead; same topics but a pleasure to read.
Purely for Reference.......2006-01-14
As an M&A finance practitioner, I am torn between giving this book a 3-star or 4-star rating. As many reviewers have noted, this is structured to be a reference book. There is more math than is typically needed or used in most small or medium-sized transactions, and there is very little introductory material for the uninitiated to get their bearings. Instead, the books delves straight into valuation exercises that are at times even more difficult than what I have encountered in the profession. The examples, while numerous and varied, are often reviewed much too quickly, and occasionally with so many permutations and small digressions that it is difficult to keep track of the purpose of the original endeavor. And as good students know, it is very hard to remember how to do something when you do not know *why* you are doing it. As such, it is difficult to recommend this book with much enthusiasm to anyone who does not at least have a few transactions under their belt because as a general guide it does not at all do the trick.
However, for more experienced users, it can come in handy, although I will still have to say that information is unnecessarily difficult to find. I feel like this book is so dense that it would be much more effective in an electronic (and hence, searchable) version. That being said, I really enjoyed a few chapters, including Chapter 9, which had some excellent examples of the effect different tax treatments have on a transaction. It came in very handy for a deal I was working on where I had to deal with NOLs.
Book Description
Based on the authors' consulting experience with numerous Fortune 500 companies, this resource will help you capture the synergies of your next merger or acquisition more quickly and effectively. Augmenting their step-by-step advice with helpful templates, checklists, graphs and tools; Galpin and Herndon provide sound guidance for successfully integrating different processes, organizations, and cultures. The authors also address pre-deal dos and don'ts, people dynamics, common mistakes, communications strategies, and specific actions you can take to create measurable positive results throughout the integration process.
Customer Reviews:
Great review of prior experiences.......2006-03-18
This is a very nice review of M&A's taking place in the late 90's good to get an overview of the M&A keys to success.
Post-Merger Process Tools for Big Companies.......2001-09-20
Having been a manager at a large company, I can see how this book would be beneficial for managers at large companies that are doing acquisitions. But from the perspective of a manager at a smaller company that is being acquired, this book was not particularly helpful.
Packed With Knowledge!.......2001-03-16
This thorough, detailed book focuses on the misunderstood aspects of merger and acquisition management. Timothy J. Galpin and Mark Herndon clearly have vast experience and draw on case studies to illustrate their suggestions. They provide sample surveys and integration flow charts to guide hands-on planning, and offer practical advice that you can apply in real-world situations. Not all of these ideas are new, nor do the authors claim them to be. Instead, they apply the most relevant ideas from management and psychology to M&A. The authors hammer home an extremely consistent message: You must communicate. They present their ideas clearly, even though the book is often wordy and uses a lot of passive voice (alas, business prose). Nonetheless, this is actually a very dense book and the authors are careful not to waste the reader's time. This is essential reading for virgin M&A managers, and we at getAbstract think that even experienced acquirers may find much to learn.
About as "Complete" as Possible.......2000-07-15
There is already an abundance of resources on the subject of M&A, especially those available on the WWW. If you are looking for a single-volume source, this is probably one of the best. The authors devote 14 chapters to virtually all aspects of M&A. In process, with clarity and eloquence, they explain the "Watson Wyatt Deal Flow Model" which, after appropriate modifications, can be applied to almost any organization involved in M&A negotiations, either as a buyer or as a seller. The final chapter, all by itself, is well worth the cost of the book. In it, the authors suggest various "keys" to M&A success. They then provide:
Resource A: Sample Task Force Charter
Resource B: Integration Planning Template
Resource C: Executive Summary of Watson Wyatt Worldwide's 1998-1999 Mergers and Acquisitions Survey
What we have here is a single-volume in which two experts on the subject of M&A seem to share everything they know about the subject. Even if your company is not currently a buyer or seller, its senior-level executives should read this book. Why? Because you just never know. Perhaps sooner than now anticipated, your company will be courted by another...or it will be attracted to another company as a prospective acquisition. In either situation, this book (and the "Watson Wyatt Deal Flow Model" it discusses) will be invaluable.
Supplement to Wall Street M&A deals.......2000-05-17
The book is a great supplement to the subject of Valuation models and talks about in depth analysis that goes into the art of valuing a company. It actually goes in to informing the reader about the pre-merger and post-merger outcomes.....very informative and analytical!
Book Description
Managing Change and Transition
Managing through change and crisis is difficult in any business environment, let alone one as turbulent as managers face today. This timely guide offers authoritative advice on how to recognize the need for organizational change, communicate the vision, prepare for structural change such as M&A, and address emotional responses to downsizing. With tools for managing stress levels and advice on gathering and sharing information during transition, this book is an indispensable guide for managers at any level of the organization.
Customer Reviews:
Managing Change and Transition.......2007-01-03
Best text on managing change I have encountered. A great addition to my management and leadership collection! Rita Shaw Rone, Ph.D.
Invaluable "Essentials".......2003-09-25
This is one of several paperbacks in the "Essentials" series, each of which offers "cutting edge" thinking on a major business subject. Mike Beer served as the adviser to Richard Luecke while he wrote this volume. Brief information about both is provided. There are seven chapters following an Introduction in which Luecke observes that "Accepting the necessity and inevitability of change enables [all companies and their decision-makers] to see times of transition not as threats but as opportunities -- opportunities for reinventing the company and its culture." Indicators include a merger, acquisition, or divestiture; the launch of a new product or service; a new leader; or a new technology. "In this book you will learn how to manage change constructively, and how to help your company, division, and people deal with the upheavals of change. You'll also learn practical things you can do to make change initiatives more successful and less painful for the people you manage."
Each of the seven chapters (which are arranged in a logical sequence) focuses on a separate but related component of effective management of change and transition. For example, in Chapter 2, Luecke explains why leaders must be respected and effective for change to happen, the role of motivation in change-readiness, the importance of a nonhierarchical culture in implementing change, and then offers several "tips" on how to become "change ready." To me, one of the most valuable chapters is the sixth (in which Luecke examines the four stages of reaction to change (i.e. shock, defensive retreat, acknowledgment, and acceptance and adaptation), how individuals can help themselves navigate change, how managers can help employees cope with change, and alternative ways for managers to think about change registers.
At the conclusion of each of the seven chapters, Luecke offers an especially useful "Summing Up" section which facilitates a periodic review of key points. I also appreciate the provision of Appendix A ("Useful Implementation Tools") and Appendix B ("How to Choose and Work with Consultants"), both of which provide basic but sound information to supplement material covered in the previous chapters.
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Jim O'Toole's Leading Change, William Bridges' Transitions and Managing Transitions and Jon Katzenbach's Real Change Leaders, all of which are available in paperback editions.
Book Description
Dr. Donald DePamphilis explains the real-world of mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring based on his academic knowledge and personal experiences with over 30 such deals himself. The 77 case studies span every industry and countries and regions worldwide show how deals are done rather than just the theory behind them, including cross-border transactions. The interactive CD is unique in enabling the user to download and customize content. It includes an Excel-based LBO model and an M&A Structuring and Valuation Model in which readers can insert their own data and modify the model to structure and value their own deals. New additions to the third edition: 17 new cases, with all 77 cases updated, Glossary, real options applications, projecting growth rates. Student Study Guide on CD contains practice problems/solutions, powerpoint slides outlining main points of each chapter, and selected case study solutions. An extensive on-line instructors manual contains powerpoint slides for lectures following each chapter, detailed syllabi for using the book for both undergraduate and graduate-level courses, and an exhaustive test bank with over 750 questions and answers (including true/false, multiple choice, essay questions, and computational problems).
*Practical, real-world approach with 77 case studies from around the globe
*CD has customized content and the latest models and forecasting tools
*Student Study Guide on CD has practice problems/solutions, powerpoint slides, and selected case study solutions
Customer Reviews:
Clearly a Home Run!!!.......2006-03-18
This is one of those books that I wish I had written. As an experienced deal maker, I know what works and what doesn't. This book explains from a highly practical perspective the "art and science" of the deal. The author clearly has done his share of transactions in terms of his ability to capture the dynamic nature of the deal structuring and acquisition process. The author, as the chess master, goes through the development of alternative deal structures and strategies designed to consummate the deal. The process of offers and counter-offers is illustrated in a delightful and comprehensive case study at the end of the book.
The book is written with a fluid style that brings what for most are very difficult concepts to life in a readily understandable yet rigorous way. The author's nummerous insights are documented through references to recent academic and practitioner studies and illustrated by using recent case studies. I find the author's frequent use of brief studies of transactions to illustrate his current point very enlightening.
This book is far more than a reference or textbook; it is the reader's ticket to learning how to do deals and implement corporate restructuring activities. The book abounds with numerical and non-numerical examples to illustrate how to do things. The CD included with the text is easily worth the price of the book in that it provides numerous complex deal structuring and valuation M&A and LBO models. The CD also contains a wealth of other information including question lists for conducting due diligence and solutions to case study questions and problems contained in the text.
Yes, I wish I had written this book. But, then, those things are best left to those who can.
A Refreshing New Approach to Learning.......2006-01-01
Many business books take a pedantic, ponderous approach to what could easily be characterized as a challenging subject. However, I found the lively writing in this book to be very helpful to keeping my attention and to making difficult material more understandable. While the book is exhaustive, I found each chapter to be largely self contained. This text is clearly the most useful I have read on this subject. The CD included with the book contains models, presentations, chapter outlines, problem sets with answers, etc., all of which make this book the best available on the market.
Great Book and Great CD.......2005-12-22
This book is a one-stop shop for those interested in M&A. It covers all the relevant topics from how to develop a rigorous business plan appropriate to undertake an acquisition, to identifying and approaching target firms, to succesful negotiation, to planning and performing due dilgence, to planning and implementing successful integration, to financing the transaction. The book also addresses how to design effective takeover tactics and defenses. I was most impressed with the extent of the explanations about how to design and implement acquisition plans from a real world perspective. The author also addresses how to design effective takeover tactics and defenses. I also found the material on the M&A implications for governance very valuable.
The book is also very well documented. The extensive list of publications is very helpful for locating more articles and books on this exciting subject. I found the glossary of M&A terms among the most useful I've seen. It could be published as an M&A dictionary. The numerous case studies sprinkled throughtout the book are very helpful in demystifying the subject.
The CD included with the books contains a wealth of material often available on the internet for hundreds of dollars. The detailed M&A models and leveraged buyout models and due diligence question lists are available for customizing to meet your specific circumstances. I found the buyer due diligence question list in electronic form to be very valuable when it came time to making changes for my own needs The chapter outlines, study guides, and presentations also included on the CD are very helpful in internalizing the material. The CD also contains ansewrs to many case study questions and chapter questions.
All things considered, this book is a must have for anyone serious about learning the subject.
Highly Student Friendly.......2005-11-25
I am currently using this book in an M&A class and have found it to be an excellent business book. The book is exceptionally well organized, intuitive, and well-written. The book's use of bold type, self-explanatory headings facilitates the overall organization of the material, finding subject matter, and understanding key points the author is trying to make. The book is rich in examples, something that is often lacking in many books. The case studies for the most part of current, instructive, and insightful. The book is full of helpful insights and practical advice.
The CD -rom included with the book contains a lot of very useful stuff including powerpoint slides for each chapter, study guides for each chapter including chapter outlines and sample test questions and anwers, as well as anwers to many of the case study questions and problems in the book. The merger, acquisition, leveraged buyout and real option software illustrates how the pros analyze and value businesses. There are no secrets as you are able to access the underlying excel instructions to see how the models tick and to change them to suit your needs.
Overall, I would give this book an A+ for insightfulness, openess, practicality, readability,and organization.
Superb!!!.......2005-11-16
As you can see, I am very impressed with this book. It is by far the best book I have read on the subject in terms of thoughtfulness, organization, documentation, and practicality. It is full of well explained examples that make would could be a daunting subject understandable. The book comes with a CD that is full of M&A and LBO valuation software and excel spreadsheets, as well as a lot of other good stuff including powerpoint presentations highlighting lecture notes, student study guides, and answers to practice problems. All things considered, I would give this book a resounding thumbs up for those wanting to use in in their personal libraries, professions, or in the class room.
Book Description
Are you a CEO, company president, or front-line financial manager recently involved in a merger or acquisition? After the Merger, long hailed as the indispensable reference source for anyone entering the M&A marketplace, is your bible for keeping costly post-merger surprises to a minimum. This classic text, first published in the heady days of 1985 and now revised to reflect new realities in today's rapidly-changing business world, is packed with fascinating case histories and examples involving TWA, Wells Fargo, and others. After the Merger shows you how to roll up your sleeves and combine two separate, highly distinct companies into one solid organization. Look here for details on ways to defuse the cultural time bombs that threaten to destroy international mergers; the 6 errors that managers make again and again, and how you can avoid them; best practices for handling the 4 major categories of merger, everything from "rescue" to "raid"; and time-saving checklists for executives on both sides of the acquisition. Whether you are in the middle of a merger or acquisition or just considering the possibility — no matter what your side — you need the completely updated and revised After the Merger to guarantee long-lasting, post-merger success.
Customer Reviews:
Highly Reccomended!.......2001-02-17
Despite the breathless headlines about the latest billion-dollar merger, most mergers don't work. In fact, more than half of all mergers fail, derailed by a common set of pitfalls. Companies merge without considering how they'll integrate after the deal; they don't communicate properly with their employees, and executives don't make decisions quickly enough to placate frightened workers. The executives who navigate mergers effectively are those who communicate well, deal with ambiguity and make decisions in times of instability. Author Price Pritchett offers an easily digested primer on the hazards of mergers, and lists hints for avoiding common problems. The authors provide plenty of concrete examples showing how such companies as Sony, Wells Fargo and the Chicago Sun-Times suffered from the dilemmas that accompany mergers. We ... recommend this comprehensive guide for managers on both sides of a business marriage. Caution: Read After the Merger before you merge.
Good Starting Place.......2000-11-14
As a project manager who picked up integrating a merger as one of his projects, I found this book to be very helpful. Mergers bring out confusion, tension and stress to all sides. This book focused on how to bridge these gaps through effective communication and project management.
Particularly, I found chapter 10 (General Guidelines for Merger/Acquisition Management) insightful and I used the checklists in this chapter in portions of our integration effort. What I felt this book missed were templates designed to immediately pick up and use in my everyday life.
I found the book is a quick read-I read it on one airplane trip. Many of the comments are very simple and fall into the category of common sense. However, in much of this common sense many of the problems of integrating two companies exist.
"The Authoritative Guide"? Give me a break!.......1999-12-30
This book should have been an short magazine article. The authors basically dissect one concept over and over and over: change is disruptive. There is very little useful information in this book. It points out all of the obvious and frequently-stated problems that come with change - productivity suffers, commitment is lost, etc., etc., etc., but gives no insight in how to fix the problems (unless you count these golden nuggets- "Keep your eye on the ball" and "Provide direction"). The one chapter that I hoped would shed some light on tactics - "Integration Project Management" - was pure fluff. It offered such pearls of wisdom as "It is helpful to look at the integration process as a logical sequence of steps designed to help bring the two organizations together." Not only is this a "Duh" statement, but it shows up in chapter 8! I would expect to read something like that in the introduction. And chapters 5 and 6 state that you should evaluate key talent in the aquired firm - but no where in these chapters does it tell you how to do it! I guess you have call up Pritchett & Associates (and fork over big $$) for the details. My only guess is that the authors kept the book generic on purpose so that companies would call and ask about their consulting services. My advice: save your money for a real book, and just call up Pritchett & Associates for their marketing literature.
Book Description
An indispensable guide to strategic best practices for business mergers
Thirteen years ago, the experts at A. T. Kearney embarked on a landmark, worldwide study of business mergers. Encompassing 25,000 companies across 24 industries in 53 countries, the study revealed much crucial information that was previously unknown about business consolidation. This book shares those revelations and insights with senior executives, consultants, and industry analysts involved in the merger process.
More important, it builds on those findings to present readers with a solid game plan for winning the consolidation game.
Readers learn about the consolidation cycles through which industries pass, how to identify where in the cycle their industry currently lies, how to leverage that knowledge in determining which organizational changes they need to make and when they need to make them, and how to develop and deploy the most successful merger strategies.
Download Description
"An indispensable guide to strategic best practices for business mergers. "
Customer Reviews:
Original thinking on M&A.......2003-02-12
This is the first original thinking on M&A that I've seen recently. Most of the M&A books go on and on about why mergers work or don't work. Winning the Merger Endgame talks about M&A in terms of its effect on industries and how they consolidate and change over time. The endgames model is intriguingly displayed as an S curve. I would only quibble slightly over the horizontal time axis, which makes the time span for each stage seem more specific than it probably is. But the research is solid and long-term.
Great book, compelling paradigm.......2003-02-07
In a glut of milquetoast business books, "Winning the Merger Endgame" stands out as a gem. The combination of solid research, analysis and writing style results in a credible, useful book that anyone interested in business should read. The heart of the book is a model that describes and predicts how industries consolidate. It's a compelling discovery that will undoubtedly change--and chart--business strategies for years. Bottom line: read it and use it.
Consolidation rules discovered.......2002-12-22
I read this book with great interest. Working in retail for more than 10 years now, this book matched my experience and helps me to forecast what might happen in my industry over the next couple of years. Although I - as well as many other readers - have an idea of what could happen or what is probably, this book with the underlying research of thousands of companies over more than 10 years and the expertise of a consulting powerhouse brings the findings to the point and quantifies them. The only small disadvantage is the title: as the book is not only focusing on mergers, but on consolidation trends as a whole (therefore also valid in times where consolidation trends are fought via price wars and organic growth).
I would already speculate that this book will become a real classic and I recommend it to any strategist, CEO or CFO interested in the mechanics of consolidation trends and finding long term survival strategies.
to the point.......2002-12-10
Finally a book that is "to the point". Simple, short, with new ideas and interesting examples.
Book Description
Global M & A activity continues at a blistering pace. However, a recent study of Fortune 500 executives found that postmerger integration issuessuch as culture clashes, style, ego, and change managementare the most common pitfalls that can derail otherwise successful mergers or acquisitions. M & A Integration meets that trend head-on, providing a practical framework for integrating acquisitions while helping managers direct each step in the volatile postmerger integration process.
Customer Reviews:
M&A Integration : A Framework for Executives and Managers.......2007-08-11
Well written ... a valuable tool for a CEO considering a Merger or Acquisition ... the "cultural integration" is very well done.
A helpful place to start with an important theme.......2003-02-26
Participating as a senior manager in my first large merger (Prudential/Wachovia), I found this book a helpful guide. It is a bit of a primer, so it will probably not appeal to old M&A hands; however, any MBA can tell you about discounted cash flow analysis, but few CEOs have mastered the art and science of integration, which is the focus of this book.
The glamor is in the deal making: late nights with the lawyers and bankers. But most (most!) mergers fail to yield their expected value because the unglamorous job of integration is largely ignored during the deal and often mishandled afterwards.
Schweiger's theme is that integration is paramount to ultimate success and it must begin at or before valuation and due diligence, and it must be integrally woven into every step and every process.
The book is readable, logically organized and helpful.
Clothing the Emperor.......2003-02-24
As David Schweiger is the first to admit, M&A activity often turns out to be a source of value only to shareholders in the acquired company. In other words, it is much easier to put a value on potential synergies, increased market share and cost-savings than it is to capture any of these items. This book, written with both pragmatic bottom-line sense as well as compassion for the millions of employees affected by M&As each year, offers an extremely practical guide to capturing that elusive value. M&A can be a bad case of the Emperor having no clothes - a strategy based upon benefits that simply won't ever materialise, something the individual memebers of the crowd may be able to see perfectly well but which they would never dare to admit. Here is an alternative to the cynicism that often accompanies M&A; following Schweiger's methodology might just end with the Emperor being more than halfway decent... There is also an excellent guide to personal survival in an uncertain corporate world. Every manager should have a copy.
Books:
- Asset Pricing: (Revised)
- Banana Wars-The Price of Free Trade: A Caribbean Perspective
- Bargaining With Uncertainty: Decision-Making in Public Health, Technologial Safety, and Environmental Quality
- Beyond Positive Thinking: A No-Nonsense Formula for Getting the Results You Want
- Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
- Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World with CD-ROM
- Challenge of Third World Development, The (4th Edition)
- "China and the New World Order: How Entrepreneurship,Globalization, and Borderless Business Are Reshaping China and the World"
- Color Drawing: Design Drawing Skills and Techniques for Architects, Landscape Architects, and Interior Designers
- Cost Management: Measuring, Monitoring, and Motivating Performance (Management Accounting)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat In
- Mulch Ado About Nothing
- Extreme Science: Chasing the Ghost Bat: And Other Mysteries of Nature
- Health Measurement Scales: A Practical Guide to Their Development and Use
- Instant Notes in Molecular Biology
- Modern Labor Economics: Theory and Public Policy
- Murder Plays House
- Treehouse Chronicles: One Man's Dream of Life Aloft
- Gwathmey Siegel: Apartments
- Let There Be Blood
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Valuation for Mergers, Buyouts, and Restructuring (Wiley Finance)
Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, Fourth Edition
The Art of M&A Due Diligence
Deals from Hell: M&A Lessons that Rise Above the Ashes
Harvard Business Review on Mergers & Acquisitions
