Almost 70% of mergers fail, yet deals are essential for growing world-class companies. Therefore they must use all the tools and techniques at their disposal to improve their chances of success. Applying the techniques advocated in this book can help managers beat the odds - and employees themselves - to have an impact on whether a deal will be successful both for the company and for themselves. This book looks at the process of a merger or acquisition and pinpoints the areas where business intelligence can raise the odds of success in each phase of the deal. Using techniques developed by governmental intelligence services and a wide range of recent case studies, quotations and anecdotes, the expert authors from the renowned Cass Business School show how to build success into any M&A situation. The first edition of Intelligent M&A was written in 2006 and published in 2007. This preceded the peak year (2007) of the last merger wave, including the excesses in a number of industries and deals (e.g., financial services with RBS dramatically failed acquisition of ABN AMRO as a key example), and the global economic downturn that led to a completely new way of operating for many industries and companies. Therefore, there is a need to update the book to incorporate not just more relevant and up-to-date case studies of deals but to show the new way of operating in a post-Lehman environment. Chapters will be comprehensively re-written and populated with new and relevant case studies.

Almost 70% of mergers fail, yet deals are essential for growingworld-class companies. Therefore they must use all the tools andtechniques at their disposal to improve their chances of success.Applying the techniques advocated in this book can helpmanagers beat the odds - and employees themselves - to have animpact on whether a deal will be successful both for the companyand for themselves.This book looks at the process of a merger or acquisition andpinpoints the areas where business intelligence can raise the oddsof success in each phase of the deal. Using techniques developed bygovernmental intelligence services and a wide range of recent casestudies, quotations and anecdotes, the expert authors from therenowned Cass Business School show how to build success into anyM&A situation.The first edition of Intelligent M&A was written in2006 and published in 2007. This preceded the peak year(2007) of the last merger wave, including the excesses in a numberof industries and deals (e.g., financial services with RBS'dramatically failed acquisition of ABN AMRO as a key example), andthe global economic downturn that led to a completely new way ofoperating for many industries and companies.Therefore, there is a need to update the book to incorporate notjust more relevant and up-to-date case studies of deals but to showthe 'new' way of operating in a post-Lehmanenvironment. Chapters will be comprehensively re-written andpopulated with new and relevant case studies.

Introduction to the Second Edition ix1 The Need for Intelligence in Mergers and Acquisitions 12 Business Intelligence 373 Designing the Acquisition Process 694 Controlling the Advisors 1015 Identifying the Best Targets 1196 The Best Defense 1597 Due Diligence 1938 Valuation, Pricing, and Financing 2439 Negotiation and Bidding 28310 Post-deal Integration 31311 Post-deal Review 35312 Conclusions 367Bibliography and References 373Index 383