Early Thoughts on AI in M&A
Artificial Intelligence is developing at a crazy fast pace with thousands of tools being developed to capitalize on the technology. Subcategories have already emerged including AI Content Detection, AI Enablement, AI Predictive Software, AI Speech Recognition, Data...
Operational Actions that Transform Value – Time Required 2 years
It’s very tempting to compare the buying and selling of houses with businesses. Be careful. For example, buying another business is like buying a house but only if you include the family inside it! Selling a business is similar to selling a house in some ways, such as...
How To Scale 98% of US Companies
Hard to believe but 98% of US companies employ less than 100 people. Take a look at the table below created from the latest US Census data. The green cells represent the companies employing 99 people or less or 98.1% of US companies, 6 million out of 6.1 million (who...
Divestments vs. M&A
Divestitures and mergers & acquisitions (M&A) can be used effectively by companies to restructure their businesses as well as meet the strategic growth objectives of the business. Divestitures involve selling off a business unit or assets (although as pointed...
The Valsoft Story
In a recent episode of the M&A Science podcast I listened to Sam Youssef Founder & CEO at Valsoft Corporation being interviewed by Kison Patel, covering the company’s growth by acquisition. There was so much in this 50-minute interview worth sharing...
The Exit Playbook
Next week we are launching our new Exit Playbook packed with advice on the exit process and some insights into how buyers behave. We share our Saleability Test which I first published in the 90s and have been calibrating ever since! The test examines 15 key factors...
10 Big Benefits of Acquisitions
Today, you’ll see some new branding on our blog. We’ve renamed it The Acquirer to reflect the new emphasis on topics related to acquisitions. However, for the foreseeable future we will continue to post operator tips related to building your business...
Are You Fit to be an Acquirer?
I was listening to an old Warren Buffet interview about his philosophies on business and specifically acquisitions. He summarized how he decides on acquisitions using four key criteria (size criteria is at least $75m earnings): A business he understands It has an...
Divestitures
This week we cover the flipside of acquisitions – divestitures which is perhaps counterintuitively a very attractive way to create value. This post is also partly a book review of the excellent new book Divestitures by Emilie R. Feldman, Professor of Management...Acquisition Support Services
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