Buy-Side Mergers and Acquisitions Advisory Services

Studies have shown that successful M&A strategies focus on three critical success factors:

• Strategy and Search: what to buy, how to structure the deal and how to find the right candidates
• Valuation, Negotiation and Close: how to determine a value and deal structure that is compelling to both companies, and bring the transaction to a close
• Integration: how to integrate the two companies after the deal is done

Service Leadership - unlike most M&A advisors – brings in-depth experience and unique resources. Since 2000, we've led or advised on more than 62 successful mergers and acquisitions / integrations of IT Services companies.

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Buy-Side Mergers & Acquisition Advisory Services Engagement

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Strategy & Search

The principals of Service Leadership have built, run and advised on just about every kind of IT Solutions and Services business. So we know which services complement each other in terms of customer segments, skills and abilities of the people, customer segments and profit models. This is critically important in developing your acquisition strategy, because adding the right services, customers and people means the difference between creating long-term synergy or long-lasting problems.

We also know how to find the right kind of company, and how to structure a win/win deal. Utilizing BestProspects^™, our constantly-updated, proprietary database of over 18,000 IT Services companies in North America, we deliver better M&A search results more efficiently than traditional search methods.

Valuation, Negotiation & Close

Understanding the best- and worst-case value that an acquisition can bring to the Buyer requires a detailed understanding of how Solution Provider companies generate value and operate after they are brought together. Building a mutually compelling deal structure protects both parties from the worst case and provides both parties with optimum rewards for the best case. Service Leadership has extensive experience in determining what value is added by the assets, what value is added to the asset by the Buyer, and using those contributions in negotiating a deal structure that brings both parties to the table and the transaction to a successful close.

Integration

As with any strategic move, making an acquisition has risks. The greatest risk factor is in failing to properly integrate the existing and acquired companies, focusing too much on the deal and not enough on the coming together of people, customers and processes.

Few M&A advisors actually bring Solution Provider industry experience to the table. So they leave you on your own during the most crucial part of the process—trying to bring the two companies smoothly and successfully together, retaining the best of both while still realizing the desired financial gains. In a timeframe that is all too short, you must continue to serve your customers and their customers, all the while transitioning operating procedures, pricing models, customer contracts, compensation plans, human resources and so on.

Only Service Leadership brings the relevant IT Services experience to the table. Since 1983, we've been leading, advising or participating in the acquisition integration process. For the first two decades, we were managers in companies on the buying or selling side of acquisitions, responsible for making the two companies work together after the deal closed. Since then, we've done the same as advisors. So our knowledge of integrating acquisitions comes from the inside out.