M&A Integration

M&A activity continues at a blistering pace, with consummated deals valuing more than 2.5 trillion dollars. Driven by technological changes, deregulation, market liberalization, and globalization, many companies today are focused on acquisitions that will provide them with new technologies, new products, entry into new markets, and lower costs through consolidation and economies of scale. Yet, in spite of this, most acquisitions fail to live up to expectations. In fact, most mergers and acquisitions create significant trauma for the managers and employees involved in them. Although the reasons for failure and trauma are many and varied, it is the human side of the equation that often derails even the most seemingly attractive M&A deals. Indeed, a recent study of Forbes 500 executives indicates that integration issues such as culture clashes, style, ego, and change are the most common pitfalls to achieving the synergy needed for a successful merger or acquisition. M&A Integration helps reverse that trend by helping to ease the post-merger process and create the value expected by stakeholders. Geared toward managers and other employees involved in the M&A transaction, this guide provides a practical framework to successfully integrating acquisitions, while helping managers understand and deal with events that are unfolding around them. Activities, guidelines, frameworks, and analytical questions help lead the reader through the murky waters of M&A integration. From outlining the strategic and financial considerations underlying an acquisition to illustrating the impact the deal has on managers and employees, M&A Integration helps the reader solve the management, human resources, and personnel issues that all too often spoil - sometimes fatally - even the best-planned deals. Readers will find insightful information on essential integration issues, including: Managing the process: from transaction to transition to integration; Managing due diligence in terms of integration: assessing culture and key employees; Managing cultural integration and post-merger politics; Unlike many guides which focus only partially on the human issues surrounding integration, the guide covers all HR, personnel, and management aspects of post-merger integration. It is a complete guide for managers, showing them how to master each step in the integration process.