News & views

Everyone loves to quote the stat. Depending on the source, somewhere between 50% and 90% of acquisitions fail. It’s a wide range, which usually means we’re measuring different things, but the direction is consistent enough to be uncomfortable. Roughly half of acquisitions destroy value for the acquirer, and only about 30% to 50% fully deliver the synergies that justified the deal in the first place. None of this is new. We’ve known it for decades. What I find more interesting is not the statistic itself, but the fact that it hasn’t changed despite how much smarter we’ve become at everything […]

Read More…

There’s a quiet structural flaw in how most M&A deals are done. It doesn’t show up in the model; it doesn’t sit in the risk register; and yet it’s one of the most reliable ways to lose value. The people who shape the deal are not the ones responsible for delivering it. By the time the operators arrive, the assumptions are already locked in, the commitments are already made, and the clock has already started. Take Cadbury. The narrative most people remember is emotional: a beloved brand, a hostile bidder, a defence mounted with conviction. The reality is far more […]

Read More…

Most Technology Due Diligence reports are thorough. Painfully thorough. They catalogue systems, they map infrastructure, they inventory applications with the enthusiasm of someone counting grains of sand on a beach. And yet, after all that work, many of them do not actually change the deal decision. So, I ran a poll in the Forbes Leadership Think Tank community asking a simple question: Where does Tech Due Diligence most often fall short? Results were interesting… None of these surprised me, what surprised me was how evenly they reinforce the same underlying problem. Technology Due Diligence often answers the wrong question because […]

Read More…

AI is having a moment in M&A advisory. Depending on who you ask, it is either quietly transforming how M&A advisory firms operate or about to replace half the diligence ecosystem. Both statements are wrong, but one sells better. The truth sits somewhere in the middle. AI is helpful in M&A. It is not decisive. And it certainly is not accountable. Right now, AI shows up best as an extremely fast, extremely literal intern inside the M&A advisory process. It reads everything. It flags patterns. It never gets tired. It also has absolutely no idea why something matters. That distinction […]

Read More…

A green technology due diligence report does not mean low integration risk. In this short video, Amanda, Senior Consultant at 180 Systems, explains why stable systems do not guarantee stable dependencies – and why integration lives between teams, not platforms. [/vc_row] […]

Read More…

While some relationships are solidified over Valentine’s Day, others are meant to end. Some end quietly. Some end loudly. And some end with a carefully negotiated carve-out, multiple lawyers on speed dial, and a shared ERP that refuses to let go. For M&A Advisory firms, carve-outs are the corporate equivalent of a grown-up breakup. Everyone agrees it is for the best. Everyone promises to stay professional. And then technology gets involved and reminds both sides why this was complicated in the first place. From an M&A Advisory and execution standpoint, carve-outs are not about separation alone. They are about survival. […]

Read More…