David Sadtler is an Associate of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre. His research, teaching and consulting activities are concentrated on questions of strategy at both the corporate and business unit levels. He is the author of a number of articles on the issues and challenges of corporate level strategy.Andrew Campbell is a Director of Ashridge Strategic Management Centre. Andrew's work includes directing research projects, running management programmes and consulting with client companies. Andrew has authored 10 books based on his research and has also published numerous articles including six with the Harvard Business Review. David Smith is an Associate of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre. He is an authority on mergers and acquisitions, valuation, and corporate investment decision-making and lectures extensively on these topics. He has specialist experience of consulting in media, marketing, manufacturing and financial services.

Preface

About the authors

Acknowledgements

Part 1 The context

1 Introduction

2 Private equity

3 Why acquisitions fail

4 Acquisition mechanics

Part 2 The process - the ten steps to successful acquisitions

5 Step 1 Formulating strategy

6 Step 2 Setting criteria

7 Step 3 Conducting a search

8 Step 4 Acquisition planning

9 Step 5 Using the right financial logic

10 Step 6 Negotiating a good deal

11 Step 7 Performing responsible due diligence

12 Step 8 Sale and purchase agreement

13 Step 9 Financing

14 Step 10 Implementation and integration

15 Summary of best practice

Appendices

Appendix A AT&T’s acquisition of BellSouth

Appendix B Imperial Group’s acquisition of Altadis

Endnotes

Index