Why Deals Fail

Mergers and acquisitions are part of the fabric of business and economic life: they help drive growth in companies of all sizes. Most executives will at some point in their careers experience a takeover, as buyer, seller or intermediary. Yet, despite M&A's obvious attractions, deals often fall short of expectations and, in extreme cases, can go disastrously wrong, with devastating consequences. From their unique perspective as practitioners and researchers, Faelten, Driessen and Moeller have seen it all when it comes to M&A, and they've used this experience to develop their Three Big Mistakes of Deal-Making. Using case studies from a wide range of companies, many household names (Diageo, BMW, Microsoft, Kraft, HP and even Manchester United), and for deals ranging from the highly to the less successful to the downright questionable, Why Deals Fail offers both a commentary on the inexorable tendency for companies to merge, for good or ill, and a guide to the benefits and pitfalls of M&A as a growth strategy. The result is a fascinating insight into why some deals work and why others go awry for anyone interested in how the corporate world works, or contemplating or facing a merger or acquisition themselves.

Practical, real-world advice and technical knowledge for corporate buyers who do M&A Did you ever do a search for the failure rate of M&A deals? Apparently, it’s high. In fact, there are many studies that say M&A deals tend to fail a majority of the time, especially for corporate buyers. But are these statistics really true? Because if the majority of deals fail, then why would anyone keep doing them year after year? Does anyone do them right? Actually, a lot of people do them right. But if you believe the statistics, there seem to be a lot more people doing them wrong. The question is, how can buyers do deals the right way, so that they don’t become just another statistic? This book answers that question and explains exactly how corporate buyers in particular can do deals the right way. Buyers who have the right mindset to approaching their deals, and a process that involves the right people with the right skills, are much more likely to have success in M&A. With that being said, this book contains practical real-world advice that has been applied in actual deals, and it provides the framework, best practices, and technical skills that are so important for executing successful deals and avoiding the failures. What’s Inside Part one of the book provides a basic overview of the M&A market. It then turns its attention to the corporate buyer and explains some of the more common reasons why deals tend to fail for corporate buyers. From there, it provides a framework for these buyers to develop their own playbooks for approaching and executing deals in a consistent, reliable, and repeatable way. Part two of the book begins to cover some of the more technical details that a buyer should know when doing a deal. It explains in detail how M&A deals are structured and negotiated. It also points out where buyers need to be careful as they negotiate, so that they’re choosing the right structures, keeping the economics of a deal fair, and aren’t taking on any unnecessary risks. Part three of the book explains how businesses are valued, with a focus on the middle market where many businesses are privately owned. It explains purchase price multiples, discounted cash flow analysis, and how to measure returns. It also explains how accretion and dilution are created from a deal and why that’s so important to a corporate buyer. Then, the book provides a framework so that buyers can use all of this information together in order to objectively decide for themselves what a business should be worth when negotiating a deal. Part four of the book covers some of the more advanced topics that buyers should be aware of when doing deals so that they don’t run into unexpected surprises after a deal has closed. This includes explaining what a quality of earnings is, why it’s important, and how it can affect a buyer’s view on the valuation of a business, as well as how to navigate the complexities of carve-outs, cross-border transactions, structuring earn-outs, and valuing intangible assets. From having an appreciation for the mindset and process that goes into executing deals, to understanding how they’re structured, negotiated, and valued, this book is intended to be the most useful, practical, and hands-on guide ever written for corporate buyers doing M&A deals in the middle market.

The combined value of all M&A deals from 1980 to the end of 2015 was almost $65 trillion—bigger than the current annual world economy value outside the US. In that same period, almost 900,000 deals were announced. Many were questionable, as Why Deals Fail shows. With companies expected to continue to merge in record numbers, it is time to learn some critical lessons from those deals. In 2014 the government of the UK—one of the most open markets globally for M&A—commissioned Cass Business School’s Mergers and Acquisitions Research Centre, headed by Scott Moeller, to investigate whether M&A has a negative or positive impact on the country’s economy. Their findings: M&A deals do generate short-term benefits for the economy, especially because some large deals were spectacularly successful. However, over the longer term, the results are less clear-cut. Despite those highly successful tie-ups that drove the economic results to an overall positive average, the majority of UK mergers by number in the research period actually destroyed value. In summary, deals can be hugely beneficial for all involved when you get it right but they still, at large, struggle to live up to their initial hype—and potential. Done wrong, they can damage business and, by extension, the economy and result in hundreds if not thousands of employees being made redundant. Most of the mergers detailed in this book are lessons in what not to do; the authors get behind the corporate veil to show what went wrong when huge and otherwise highly successful global businesses such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, Microsoft, and HP embarked on M&A transactions. Why Deals Fail is aimed at business people who want to understand better how M&A can drive corporate fortunes. Whether you are a seasoned M&A professional, an employee in a company that is acquiring or being acquired, or a newly graduated business student doing analysis about a deal, this book will help you to make the right decisions when they are most crucial.

Mergers and acquisitions are part of the fabric of business and economic life: they help drive growth in companies of all sizes. Most executives will at some point in their careers experience a takeover, as buyer, seller or intermediary. Yet, despite M&A's obvious attractions, deals often fall short of expectations and, in extreme cases, can go disastrously wrong, with devastating consequences. From their unique perspective as practitioners and researchers, Faelten, Driessen and Moeller have seen it all when it comes to M&A, and they've used this experience to develop their Three Big Mistakes of Deal-Making. Using case studies from a wide range of companies, many household names (Diageo, BMW, Microsoft, Kraft, HP and even Manchester United), and for deals ranging from the highly to the less successful to the downright questionable, Why Deals Fail offers both a commentary on the inexorable tendency for companies to merge, for good or ill, and a guide to the benefits and pitfalls of M&A as a growth strategy. The result is a fascinating insight into why some deals work and why others go awry for anyone interested in how the corporate world works, or contemplating or facing a merger or acquisition themselves.

In a business climate marked by escalating global competition and industry disruption, successful mergers and acquisitions are increasingly vital to the growth and profitability of many corporations. If history is any guide, 60 to 70 per cent of new mergers will fail – and will destroy shareholder value. To date, analyses of the M&A failure rate tend to focus on individual causes – e.g., culture clashes, valuation methods, or CEO overconfidence – rather than examining the problem holistically. The Value Killers is the first book based on a holistic analysis of successful and unsuccessful transactions. Based on research, interviews with top executives, and case studies, this book identifies the key causes of failures and successes and offers prescriptions to increase the odds that future transactions will deliver all the anticipated synergies. The Value Killers offers practical advice in the form of 5 Golden Rules. These rules will help managers and boards to ensure that target companies are properly valued; potential synergies and risks are identified in advance; checks and balances are installed to make sure that the pros and cons of the transaction are rationally and objectively evaluated; mechanisms are created that will trigger termination of bad deals; and obstacles to successful post-merger integrations are assessed (and solutions developed) before the deal closes. Each chapter includes questions for executives considering future M&As to allow them to see whether they are on the right track or not.

The survival and prosperity of any corporation over the long term depend on the company's ability to grow and develop through a process of investment, restructuring, and redeployment. Since the late 19th century, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have become an essential vehicle for corporate change, fuelled by synergies that could arise from expansion of sales and earnings, reduction in cost, and lower taxes and cost of capital.M&A transactions, however, are complex and risky and are affected by the state business cycle, financial conditions, regulations, and technology. Approximately two-thirds of all M&A deals fail. This book seeks to provide an effective and comprehensive framework, predominantly embedded in corporate finance, for achieving greater success. Written by academics and practitioners, it integrates business strategies with formal analysis relating to M&A deal making, providing a coherent statement on M&A by utilizing scholarly work with best practices by industry.The authors provide extensive analytical review and applications of the following critical M&A issues: valuation, leveraged buyouts, payment methods and their implications, tax issues, corporate governance, and the regulatory environment, including antitrust in M&A. The book globalizes the M&A model by extending it to cross-border business, risk and select hedging methods, and addresses postmerger integration.This book is intended as a reading text for a course in M&A for undergraduates and MBA programs, and for practitioners as a handbook.

A detailed look at the worst M&A deals ever and the lessons learned from them It's common knowledge that about half of all merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions destroy value for the buyer's shareholders, and about three-quarters fall short of the expectations prevailing at the time the deal is announced. In Deals from Hell, Robert Bruner, one of the foremost thinkers and educators in this field, uncovers the real reasons for these mishaps by taking a closer look at twelve specific instances of M&A failure. Through these real-world examples, he shows readers what went wrong and why, and converts these examples into cautionary tales for executives who need to know how they can successfully navigate their own M&A deals. These page-turning business narratives in M&A failure provide much-needed guidance in this area of business. By addressing the key factors to M&A success and failure, this comprehensive guide illustrates the best ways to analyze, design, and implement M&A deals. Filled with in-depth insights, expert advice, and valuable lessons gleaned from other M&A transactions, Deals from Hell helps readers avoid the common pitfalls associated with this field and presents them with a clear framework for thinking about how to make any M&A transaction a success.

The new M&A bible. Few actions can change the value of a company—and its competitive future—as quickly and dramatically as an acquisition. Yet most companies fail to create shareholder value from these deals, and in many cases they destroy it. It doesn't have to be this way. In The Synergy Solution, Deloitte's Mark Sirower and Jeff Weirens show acquirers how to develop and execute an M&A strategy—end to end—that not only avoids the pitfalls that so many companies fall into but also creates real, long-term shareholder value. This strategy includes how to: Become a prepared "always on" acquirer Test the investment thesis and DCF valuation of a deal Plan for a successful Announcement Day, and properly communicate synergy promises to investors and other stakeholders Realize those promised synergies through integration planning and post-close execution Manage change and build a new, combined organization Sirower and Weirens provide invaluable background to those considering M&A, laying out the issues they have to consider, how to analyze them, and how to plan and execute the deal effectively. They also show those who have already started the process of M&A how to maximize their chances of success. There's an art and a science to getting mergers and acquisitions right, and this powerful book provides the insights and strategies acquirers need to find success at every stage of an often complex and perilous process.