Mastering the Merger: Four Critical Decisions That Make or Break the Deal

By David Harding and Sam Rovit

Book Overview

Today's corporate deal makers face a conundrum: Though 70% of major acquisitions fail, it's nearly impossible to build a world-class company without doing deals. In Mastering the Merger, David Harding and Sam Rovit argue that a laserlike focus on just four key imperatives--before executives finalize the deal--can dramatically improve the odds of M&A success. Based on more than 30 years of in-the-trenches work on thousands of deals across a range of industries--and supplemented by extensive Bain & Co. research--Harding and Rovit reveal that the best M&A performers channel their efforts into (1) targeting deals that advance the core business; (2) determining which deals to close and when to walk away; (3) identifying where to integrate--and where not to; and (4) developing contingency plans for when deals inevitably stray. Top deal makers also favor a succession of smaller deals over complex megamergers--and essentially institutionalize a success formula over time. Helping executives zero in on what matters most in the complex world of M&A, Mastering the Merger offers a blueprint for the decisions and strategies that will beat the odds.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591394384
• ISBN13: 9781591394389
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Relatively good read with M & A process nicely laid out but several weak areas

Overall, this is a good book where the M & A process is nicely laid out and with critical decisions clearly explained. The part on why you should go away from a deal is valuable as it is always forgotten in other M & A books. There are several weak areas nonetheless in this book. The link with strategy is a bit simplistic: "organic growth is not enough, you have to acquire to really grow... and we have the data backing this...

Excellent M & A Book

Mergers and acquisitions (M & A) are often essential to a company's growth and viability. However, a staggering 70 percent of mergers fail, often with devastating consequences for all concerned. For executives contemplating a deal, Mastering the Merger is filled with excellent, actionable advice. It is written in a tight, compelling way that business leaders will find quite useful. Mastering the Merger focuses on the...

Packed with Knowledge!

The odds are overwhelmingly against merger success - academic studies say 70% of mergers fail. Yet the biggest, most successful companies in the world grew through mergers and acquisitions. Building a global corporation from organic growth alone is nearly impossible. In this excellent discussion of merger basics, authors David Harding and Sam Rovit point out some facts that most academic analyses of mergers ignore. They show...