The Technology M&A Guidebook

This book solved a problem that I could not figure out from the other books on the shelf or with disjointed web searching: building a tech-oriented merger strategy from the bottom-up. As an engineer-turned-business person I rejected dozens of other books because, while the high finance cannot be ignored, backing into it from a solid operational approach gives a vitally fresh perspective in the boardroom. Blue collar grounding of fundamentals like production risk, buzz among talkative engineers, customer feedback close to the source, R & D projects that should be killed, etc are a few of the key aspects of non-financial due diligence. Not insignificantly, teams at the target company will actually talk with people who are not boardroom bred. In the 6 integrations I have run, the more successful ones are overwhelmingly Ops driven to the constant surprise of the finance guys. This well-written book really helps to remove the usual blinders. This book is also a gem when viewed from other vantage points. For example, I built a safety-critical software industry overview patterned on the excellent software industry assessment in the book. Now canvassing this niche industry globally is vastly simpler and more strategically relevant from the first call onward. My team owns the thinking and resulting models, but the inspiration is all from Messrs. Paulson and Huber. M & A is certainly a complex subject. With this book you stand a chance to lead the boardroom discussion grounded whereas the MBA's are all executing the same playbook consisting of spreadsheets and analyst reports.