​Successful deal making requires a well-defined strategy and experience. We work alongside clients to develop a clear view on their growth opportunities and M&A needs.

The best acquirers know how to pick their targets by doing four things right:

  1. Consider M&A as an extension of their company's growth strategy where the primary purpose of M&A is not to grow big fast, but to do what they do better.​
    • Invest in their core and expand into highly related businesses that reinforce their core
    • Use acquisitions to buttress their basis of competition or to shift to a stronger basis of competition​
  2. Develop clear view on growth opportunities and M&A needs.
    • Define a growth strategy articulating growth aspirations, portfolio priorities (invest/divest), prioritized growth opportunities and method of growth (organic, M&A, JV/partnership)
    • Articulate M&A strategy, clearly stating M&A objectives and sources of value tied to growth strategy and role of M&A within it​
  3. Plan for opportunity long before any opportunity arises by creating a pipeline of priority acquisition targets, each with a customized investment thesis and systematically cultivate relationships with high-priority targets.​
  4. Build M&A programs around frequent, continuous deal making and focus on small acquisitions initially before setting their sights on larger targets and/or targets adjacent to their core with increasing accumulated M&A experience and institutional knowledge (M&A capability).


Successful deal making requires a well-defined strategy and experience. Through our work with clients and our experience we understand the importance of the learning curve in M&A:

  • Frequent acquirers that buy consistently over time out-perform binge acquirers as measured by excess stock market returns.
  • Acquirers that focus on smaller deals tend to outperform those doing larger deals–they start small and absorb what they learn before tackling big deals.
  • The rewards are greatest for experienced acquirers making big, transformative deals.
  • The penalties are most severe for inexperienced acquirers attempting one-shot mega-deals or sitting inactively on the sidelines.

acquisition screening