THE NEW M&A STRATEGY FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESS IN TODAY'S VOLATILE MARKETS

""Rich in examples and details, well-grounded in wisdom from years of experience, and blessedly practical . . . . engaging, well-written, and loaded with worthy insights. Study this book and prosper."" -- DR. ROBERT B RUNER, Dean, University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, and author of Deals from Hell, The Panic of 1907, and Applied Mergers & Acquisitions.

""Drawing on his experience with more than 100 M&A transactions, Hoffmann has written a defi nitive 'how-to' for acquiring companies in the below $50 million sales market space. The examples . . . offer] astute insight into every feature of the topic."" -- DR. NANCY BAGRANOFF, Dean, Robins School of Business of the University of Richmond; President of the American Accounting Association; and coauthor of Core Concepts of Consulting for Accountants and Core Concepts of IT Auditing.

""This is a wonderful history with compelling lessons from the great successes of the Trader Publishing and Landmark Communications leadership and business model. The reflection on past deals gone wrong helps the reader understand why you do deals, how to pursue M&A, and what principles you need to be successful."" -- MACON B. ROCK, founder and Chairman of Dollar Tree Stores, Inc., and founder and former President of K&K Toys.

""A must-read for those who hope to start small and grow big by acquiring, improving, and innovating. Following his rules may not lead you to be part of the 1 percent, but it will certainly keep you from being part of the 70 percent that fail."" -- HOWARD S. TEVENSON, Senior Associate Dean, Harvard University; Director of Publishing, Harvard Business Publishing Company board; and author of New Business Ventures and the Entreprenuer, Make Your Own Luck, and Do Lunch or Be Lunch.

Seize the competitive advantage with today's most powerful strategic tool--M&A

""Given the influence of technology, globalization, and regulatory change, M&A will continue to shape our industries. For most companies, therefore, the consideration of M&A in strategy is now fundamental.""
-from the Introduction to Part I

"The Art of M&A Strategy" is exactly what you need to build mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures into your overall business strategy--to make M&A a competitive advantage and avoid landing on the long list of M&A failures.

Experts in the field of M&A, Smith and Lajoux demystify this otherwise complex subject by taking you through the types of M&A strategy and the key steps to successful M&A strategy development and implementation. "The Art of M&A Strategy" is conveniently organized into three sections: Part I presents a range of possible corporate strategy situations and provides the role and rationale for M&A in each, such as building and managing a portfolio, participating in industry consolidation, spurring corporate growth, and using acquisitions to create "real options." Part II outlines how to determine the role of M&A in your strategy--taking into consideration industry context, competitive imperatives, and strategy options--and explains how to find and screen partners, decide whether to buy or sell, and engage the board of directors in M&A decisions. Part III covers M&A as a sustained corporate program, particularly in the context of international growth, outlining the most strategic aspects of post-merger integration, describing how to use advisors throughout the process, and examining core competencies required for successful M&A programs.

The authors illuminate the purpose and process of applying M&A with real-world success stories involving Cisco, GE, Google, and many other companies that have leveraged M&A for strategic success. Use "The Art of M&A Strategy" to create a powerful strategy position for success in today's changing business environment and to seize and hold competitive advantage.

The missing link to determining a company's real value

Most people at the M&A table know how to carry out financial and legal due diligence. Only the accomplished investors come prepared with an in-depth understanding of the complete due diligence process. "Operations Due Diligence" is a game-changing guide for investors who need a fully accurate determination on the sustainability of a business.

Written by a hands-on operations executive who has successfully implemented process improvement programs at large and small businesses, this practical guidebook sets itself apart by providing a step-by-step strategy for analyzing the toughest area of a business to assess: its operations.

Unlike financial and legal due diligence, there were no principles such as law and accounting to guide operations due diligence--until now. This turnkey approach, based on a pragmatic series of almost 400 questions, helps you accurately assess the infrastructures of a business's customer satisfaction, production, information management, sales and marketing, organization, and personnel, as well as its finances and legal operations. For managers and business owners looking to improve the sustainability of their business, this guided inquiry serves as a thorough operations checklist to next-level performance.

Whether you are an investor trying to capture a new opportunity with minimal risk or an executive struggling to improve your business, "Operations Due Diligence" gives you a distinct advantage by: Going a step further than most books and illustrating how to analyze your discoveries Using historic examples to make the lessons both understandable and memorable Clearly explaining how and why each sector is an important indicator of the long-term sustainability of a business Conveniently locating infrastructure summary questions at the end of chapters for quick reference Providing a document checklist so nothing gets overlooked at the negotiating table

The highest-valued companies and their investors know that producing the best products and services isn't enough. Survival depends on continually improving infrastructure through Operations Due Diligence.

This edited volume includes a broad sample of scholarly publications of Professor Edwin J. Perkins on U.S. financial history and related topics in the fields of economic and business history. Included are journal articles, excerpts from his prominent books, plus three previously unpublished manuscripts. The content is organized chronologically, starting with the colonial era and ending with the second half of the twentieth century. A major highlight of the book is the key role stockbroker, Charles Merrill, founder of Merrill Lynch & Co., played in the evolution and expansion of the nation's equity markets in the twentieth century.

Successfully Source, Negotiate, and Close Any Merger, Acquisition, or Joint Venture

"Making M&A Deals Happen" provides a practical businessperson's approach to making M&A deals that withstand the test of time. The book presents complete guidance on how to source, negotiate, and close mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures, discussing each stage of the deal process and highlighting the critical elements, risks, and opportunities of each.

Bob Stefanowski, who has overseen more than $8.7 billion in M&A deals, equips readers with expert information on the M&A environment... developing a company strategy on M&A...financial modeling and final valuation...bidding strategies...structuring the deal...legal and regulatory issues...and much more.

Filled with easy-to-use tools, techniques, and resources, "Making M&A Deals Happen" features: Proven M&A strategies and tactics that increase value for the company In-depth case studies of Tyco, Conseco, and Time Warner, showing where firms have gone wrong_and how to avoid similar pitfalls Detailed negotiation do's and don'ts and troubleshooting techniques A wealth of tables, charts, and examples that illustrate key methods Sample due diligence audit programs and information requests

Based on a renowned course the author teaches at UPENN - Wharton "Making M&A Deals Happen" now offers a winning blueprint to all professionals actually involved in the M&A process_ whether in the planning, due diligence, or integration phases.

Your roadmap to success in the world of postmerger integration

Nearly half of today's executives attribute M&A failure to poor integration between merging businesses. This thoroughly revised edition of "The Art of M&A Integration" provides you with updated facts on integration of compensation plans, new FASB and GAAP accounting rules, strategies for merging IT systems and processes, and more.

This is the classic book on how to invest money in new ventures. Almost all of the books on the market that deal with venture capital discuss how entrepreneur's can raise venture capital. This book helps the other side of the process, the side that actually lays out the money to seed those entrepreneurs.

Faced with new levels of savage competition, tens of thousands of companies, including fierce competitors, are sharing their resources and expertise to develop new products, achieve larger scale economies, and gain access to new technology and new markets. These strategic alliances are justifiably hailed by many as the competitive weapon of the 1990s. But because they are blurring and reshaping the very structure and boundaries of corporations in unprecedented ways, the process of designing and managing these alliances confronts managers with the awesome task of inventing theory and practice on a daily basis. Up to now, they have had few places to turn for guidance.

In "Partnerships for Profit, " Jordan D. Lewis, an internationally recognized expert on strategic alliances, now provides the first full-scale analysis of this surging global phenomenon. During five years of intensive field research, including 500 interview hours with more than 100 executives from some 40 American, European, and Asian firms, Lewis has observed firsthand some of the most successful strategic alliances and alliance practitioners in the world. Drawing on the experiences of IBM, Fuji Xerox, Ford, Dow Chemical, Intel, Komatsu, Corning, Sony, Apple Computer, Ciba-Geigy, and many other companies, Lewis brilliantly describes in detail how managers at each of these pioneering firms structure and manage various kinds of alliances -- from informal cooperation, minority investments, and risk-sharing contracts to full-fledged joint ventures and strategic networks. Through actual examples, Lewis shows for the first time how alliance partners build trust, develop mutual understandings, and make joint decisions, and at the same time protect core interests and critical technology -- a major concern of direct competitors. Lewis explains how to avoid the "Trojan horse" blunder many American firms made when they gave their Asian manufacturing partners key information about tailoring their products to local preferences. Particularly important is an entire chapter devoted to working with other cultures. The employment of strategic alliances, Lewis concludes, requires nothing short of a revolution in the conduct of business. Unlike arm's length relations, in which initial commitments govern, alliances involve shared risks and ongoing mutual adjustments. Lewis shows how alliances inevitably shape the business strategy of an entire firm, since the decisions to target certain markets and commit resources involve groups of firms acting in concert. Finally, Lewis shows how the use of alliances will affect internal management policies and practices, especially methods to bring about an outward focus and overcome the "not invented here" syndrome. We have entered the age of strategic alliances.

U.S. companies are still reeling from the takeovers, leveraged buyouts, junk bond issues, re-capitalizations, and other financial restructuring transactions that reshaped corporations in the 1980s. In this book, distinguished economists and scholars in the business administration, management, and law discuss how those transactions affected corporate management and the financial markets. The authors examine why so much corporate restructuring occurred and, particularly, what corporate governance problems were behind it. They evaluate the causes and effects of restructuring, the economic, political, and legal environment that encouraged it, and the new laws and court rulings that resulted. The contributors explain that financial restructuring was driven by a dispute over who should control large public corporations, what their goals should be, to whom the organizations and their managers should be accountable, and how to make them more accountable. Although the wave of financial restructuring itself has subsided, this conflict remains unsolved and will continue to influence the business climate. The Deal Decade addresses such issues as: Why did long-dormant questions about corporate performance and governance surface in the 1980s? Why did they manifest themselves in takeovers and financial restructurings? Why would capital structure be likely to affect corporate performance? Were the increased use of debt and rapid pace of innovation in financial markets, and the explosion in takeover activity independent phenomena or related? And if related, which caused which? Finally, why did the impulse to restructure subside without having resolved the controversies that underlay it?

This book covers the consolidation and merger of corporations and corporate divestiture in the United States.

This set maps articles from the four main fields that influence the study of mergers and acquisitions: economics, finance, strategic management and human resource management, and encompasses a range of further perspectives. With a multidisciplinary approach, these volumes integrate the main fields of reference for mergers and acquisitions, and are structured around the following issues:
* the history of, and perspectives on, the modern business corporation and the role of mergers and acquisitions
* causes of mergers and acquisitions activity
* consequences of mergers and acquisitions activity
* public policy and the corporation.
A detailed index and new introduction are provided to guide the reader through this multidisciplinary collection.