Negotiation

Excellence in Financial Management

Course 7: Mergers & Acquisitions (Part 1)

Prepared by: Matt H. Evans, CPA, CMA, CFM

This course (part 1) provides a concise overview of the merger and acquisition process, including the legal process, federal regulations and due diligence. The purpose of the course is to give the user a solid understanding of how mergers and acquisitions work. This course is recommended for 2 hours of Continuing Professional Education. In order to receive credit, you will need to pass a multiple choice exam which is administered over the internet at www.exinfm.com/training

Published March 2000

Chapter

1

Basic Concepts

Mergers and acquisitions represent the ultimate in change for a business. No other event is more difficult, challenging, or chaotic as a merger and acquisition. It is imperative that everyone involved in the process has a clear understanding of how the process works. Hopefully this short course will provide you with a better appreciation of what is involved.

You might be asking yourself, why do I need to learn the merger and acquisition (M & A) process? Well for starters, mergers and acquisitions are now a normal way of life within the business world. In today's global, competitive environment, mergers are sometimes the only means for long-term survival. In other cases, such as Cisco Systems, mergers are a strategic component for generating long-term growth. Additionally, many entrepreneurs no longer build companies for the long-term; they build companies for the short-term, hoping to sell the company for huge profits. In her book The Art of Merger and Acquisition Integration, Alexandra Reed Lajoux puts it best:

Virtually every major company in the United States today has experienced a major acquisition at some point in history. And at any given time, thousands of these companies are adjusting to post-merger reality. For example, so far in the decade of the 1990's (through...