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Articles & Books From Bill Snow
Explore M&A, in simple termsMergers & Acquisitions For Dummies provides useful techniques and real-world advice for anyone involved with – or thinking of becoming involved with – transactional work. Whether you are a transactions pro, a service provider tangentially involved in transactions, or a student thinking of becoming an investment banker, this book will provide the insights and knowledge that will help you become successful.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 05-16-2023
A merger or acquisition is a huge deal for any business, so you want your mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transaction to be a success from start to finish. Understanding the keys to M&A success helps you see the process through from step one to closing and integration.Keys to successfully completing a M&B dealAn M&A deal is the biggest deal of your life, so completing a successful transaction is key.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Debt can help Buyer make an acquisition by leveraging Buyer’s existing capital. The following covers the different types of debt common in M&A, so dig in!
M&A senior lenders
A senior lender is usually a bank that lends a company money, often for the express purpose of financing an acquisition. As the name implies, this lender is senior to all other lenders, which means that the senior lender gets paid before the other lenders in the event the borrower goes bankrupt.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
A private equity (PE) firm is a pool of money looking to invest in or to buy companies. Not all PE firms in the M&A business are the same. The following will clue you in on a few common types of PE firms.
Traditional (buy and sell)
A traditional PE firm wants to make an acquisition and perhaps fix up the company by streamlining operation, cutting wasteful spending, increasing sales, and maybe making some add-on acquisitions, all on a three- to five-year timeline.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
EBITDA is a key M&A metric. Heck, it’s a key metric in all things business. EBITDA is a measure of a company’s profitability for doing what that company is supposed to do: selling a product or service.
EBITDA effectively removes the profit-distorting effects of taxes, interest income, and expense and eliminates the effects of making capital investments in the firm.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
One of the hurdles to getting an M&A deal done is long-term debt. Many Sellers either “conveniently” forget about the debt or hope/assume that Buyer will simply assume the debt no questions asked. Here’s a little bit of expert advice: That ain’t gonna work! The long-term debt of the business is Seller’s obligation.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Contacting Sellers for an M&A deal is easy. You pick up the phone and call. What’s tricky is having a meaningful conversation with a Seller.
When contacting a Seller, you want to speak with the owner, not an executive (even if it’s the president). A high-ranking executive is only an influencer. You need to speak with the actual owner.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
The letter of intent (LOI) lays the foundation for the M&A deal as it moves forward. Here are some of the sections you should make sure you include in a LOI as part of any deal:
M&A LOI: Due diligence and timing
Due diligence is the inspection period for Buyer. It comprises a short section, perhaps just a single sentence, in the LOI where Buyer indicates how long he needs to complete it.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
An M&A deal is the biggest deal of your life, so completing a successful transaction is key. Knowing a few key M&A tips — whether you're merging or acquiring — increases your odds of successfully completing an M&A deal. Secrets to success include the following:
Retain capable and experienced M&A advisors. You can't complete this transaction alone, and a business owner who represents himself in a life-altering deal is asking for trouble.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
After you successfully acquire a company, you have to integrate it into your operations. Integrating acquisitions can be challenging; successful integration involves merging several aspects of the companies. Some considerations for successfully combining an acquired company with a parent company include the following:
Product mix: One of the first integration considerations for Buyer is dealing with the product and service offers of the acquired company and the parent company.