M&A STORIES - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

In last week's topic we unpacked the myth of M&A failure rates and this week, Toby expands on the discussion to talk about the deal value disconnect whereby what was envisaged when the deal was crafted, is often very different to what post deal activities uncover. We offer some thoughts as to why this might be the case but we'd welcome your thoughts and experiences. We then move on....

80% of all M&A deals fail is the cry you often hear and Toby takes this apart to show stats from recent surveys demonstrating that in reality, most deals are successful, but they have to be measured in terms of Strategic success, Financial Success and Operational success. We then move on to talk about Artificial Intelligence (or Intelligent systems as Toby prefers to call it). Does AI have a s...

It's the second episode with our new format and Robert brings  up a recent Financial Review post that suggests there will be significantly less 'strategic' M&A deals because companies are focused on getting back to post COVID normal. As you might expect, Toby is dubious (as is Robert to some degree so we've published the link here so you can form your own opinions  Toby con...

After the Christmas hiatus, The Dastardly Duo of Rob and Toby are back and they are trying a new format for the M&A War Stories podcast.  In today's episode Rob and Toby reflect on trends in M&A deals, they have a rant about how the impact of culture in deals is often misunderstood and mismanaged and then they change gear and examine the recent acquisition of ME Bank by Bank of Queens...

It's our last podcast for 2020 and your hosts on M&A War Stories, Toby Tester and Robert Heaton reflect on the common theme of leadership that has been a constant throughout all of our podcasts. We also look back on which topics have been out individual favourites and we leave our listeners with six key takeaways for the year. We'd like to wish all our listeners around the world the...

In this week's story Robert   and Toby talk about an experience with a senior executive who’s rapid career success elevated him to the ‘big chair’ but confronted him with a woe some lack of preparedness for the people,  responsibilities and accountability that he now faced. We’ll start 12 years back when a young sales guy walked into his new job with an eagerness to succeed. It wasn’t long be...

Some 20 years ago Toby Tester had the good fortune to study Existentialism as part of his MBA at Macquarie University. Apart from being what he thought was a pretty cool subject at the time, the existentialist view on responsibility continues to resonate with him to this day.  It's a type of responsibility that's deep, introspective and uncompromising. People need to go forth into the wo...

In this episode of M&A War Stories, I put Toby Tester under pressure with a theoretical scenario  Imagine this?  You're a technology business and in the past three years one of your regions has made 2 acquisitions that are aimed at enhancing the products and services that you can offer to clients. You will also ‘acquire’ some new customers as a result of these acquisitions. To date, you h...

The economic turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic is likely to unleash a wave of deals as companies look to offload business units to help generate cash, strengthen the balance sheet and become more resilient to what may be a more turbulent future.  It’s during a crisis, like we have now, where organisations need to refocus their business and think about where they are going to invest.   Div...

This isn’t a story about M&A as such but it’s a story about customer service that left its mark on me and several other people at the time. It also delivers powerful lessons for M&A practitioners about the need to ensure customer service levels are maintained   during and after post deal integration. The occasion was a Board meeting in San Francisco. It was 7:00pm and the only item left on...

This story is something I observed whilst completing a project for a large multinational pharmaceutical and CPG company. My role was to advise on the global consolidation of manufacturing and other business services so the situation I’m about to tell was just something I observed at close hand, because I happened to be there at the time. This company manufactured feminine hygiene products and beca...

Rob  and Toby  discuss their views that M&A should increasingly  be seen as a vehicle to drive real transformation in a business and not just a transactional process to  achieve cost reduction and operating synergies. M&A as a means to transforming a business is a powerful mechanism that delivers real  and lasting value, but it requires vision and leadership as catalysts of change. Through...

We're still on the topic of M&A, but in this episode we detour to an hilarious story with a sobering lesson.   The story is set in the backdrop of  a slap up meal  to celebrate a  successful acquisition  AND  three years of  significant business growth. At the height of these celebrations, the CFO somehow managed to lose his trousers  and his embarrassment is revealed in the story telling...

In this podcast we are joined by Daniel Levy from Kidder Williams a Corporate Advisory firm providing Investment Banking services to private and ASX-listed companies, including: Corporate Finance Strategy Mergers & acquisitions Divestments and demergers Capital structure Equity and debt raisings IPOs Daniel outlines his experiences where poor governance and amateur level finance preparation ha...

Attracting a price premium for a divestiture comes down to three things: preparation, preparation and preparation. More preparation; more value.  Background:  A UK listed engineering business brought Toby in to help them acquire a global computer analytics business put up for sale by the parent firm. The buyer saw a unique opportunity to complement cutting-edge computer analytics with their curren...

We've got special guest Ben Kenyon from North Cyber Security joining this week, and Ben goes into the technical realm of FOSS (Free Open Source Software) to outline the importance of software IP and checking source code for external or 3rd party licences that might have been used to build the software. Developers often use other people's code to help build their own software quicker and...

In this episode we are joined by our guest, Ted Leverette - The Original Buyer Advocate from "Partner" On Call Network LLC , based in Palm Beach, Florida.  In this story, Ted walks through an example of Acquisition Creative Financing—After Gaining Control.  It’s a deal he arranged for a buyer who didn’t have enough down payment cash to buy the company.  Thanks to a cooperative seller, an...

With apologies upfront. COVID-19 gremlins caused some sound quality issues in the last segment of this episode. We hope we will be forgiven. And we get serious this week so you could consider this episode a free training program. TRANSITIONAL SERVICE AGREEMENTS (TSA's) are legal / financial instruments typically used during carve-outs where certain services (read IT systems, payroll, asset le...

This is more a story about a restructure rather than a merger of acquisition, but the decisions that were enacted apply just as easily to M&A. The headline of this story is that you should not ignore the impact that your decisions have on people. This was a large UK manufacturing business with a new CEO who was keen to overhaul the business, reduce costs, increase productivity and boost profit...

In this episode, our guest is Linley Watson , Founder and CEO Peak Performance International and author of “Avoiding the M&A Failure Club”. Peak Performance is a leading Australasian people and culture consultancy with team members in Australia and New Zealand and a wide network of associates across the globe. https://www.peakperformance.com.au/ Linley offers her view that good communication i...

Just when you thought it impossible to get M&A and Zombies in the same podcast, Toby comes along to prove everyone wrong. In this podcast he returns to his favourite topic of Deal Fever, presenting the view that some deals go REALLY wrong and that is always because the acquiring company ignores the three core principles of Purpose, Process and Planning. And when they do, they start to act in a...

In this episode, our guest is Norman Wolfe, founder and CEO of Quantum Leaders, a 15 year veteran of Hewlett Packard and author of The Living Organization, an application of the core principles of how the world works and how organisations can create extraordinary impact. Norman's view is that most M&A fail because they are treated transactionally, and while that's a necessary baselin...

As we look towards to possible end to COVID-19, there is general acceptance that we will see a rise in divestments, both out of necessity because of distressed assets, but also from strategic adjustments. In this episode, Toby goes back in time to reflect on his first divestiture. This was a large separation impacting almost 1,000 people and a post divestment review idetified 14 key lessons for fu...

In this week's story, we continue with the Sales Integration theme but explore a Food & Beverage acquisition where despite best practice from the leadership team, a few Brand Managers attempted to throw post deal progress off the rails. And then just as this 'sabotage' arose, another culture war erupted in Marketing. This story outlines how strong leadership in the business reco...

In the last episode, Toby outlined how some acquisitions have an inside out approach, and the customer is often overlooked, resulting in lost revenue opportunities. In this episode, Robert draws on his extensive sales expertise to outline all of the moving parts that need to be considered post deal in order to ensure that the customer, and revenue growth become a central focus of the deal value cr...