mergertech

When it comes to mergers and acquisition deals, companies that are looking to make a major purchase have a lot of ground to cover. From making sure that financing is in order, to conducting due diligence, it is critical to have all of the necessary details in place to ensure the deal goes through without a hitch. An M&A advisor can provide useful guidance when dealing with these aspects.

If faced with this decision or planning an acquisition strategy, one of the key aspects to consider is whether the company cultures will be a match. Every company has its own unique culture, which plays an integral role in the way that it operates. When merging two companies together, failing to adequately account for this factor may spoil an otherwise seemingly workable deal.

When two companies decide to merge, there could be a multitude of factors that motivate the deal. One company could approach another because it is interested in the technology that company has been developing. In some cases it might be more interested in the talented team that was responsible for creating a certain technology. Either way, the ultimate goal is to increase value and make a better company.

In the technology M&A landscape it is not uncommon to hear that Google has made a recent acquisition deal. As a large company that is constantly working on a number of projects, it frequently needs access to new technologies or talented teams that will help it achieve its desired aims. As such, the company makes acquisitions from time to time.

Telecom giants Sprint and T-Mobile are currently engaged in an intensifying, industry-wide price war. Provoked by failed merger talks earlier this summer, the battle continues to escalate, with both wireless carriers lowering prices. Late in August, Sprint announced a new strategy for generously-priced data plans to attract the competition's current customers, offering subscribers up to 10 lines (20 gigabytes of available data per month) for $100 a month while T-Mobile, for the same price, will provide four lines with 10 gigabytes of data.

Determining whether you and your company would do better in the long run to continue as a stand-alone entity or sell and become part of a larger organization involves a large number of considerations, both professional and emotional. Entrepreneurs almost universally struggle harder with the latter, for there is no denying that selling your company is as much a personal as it is a business transaction.

Business owners who are not prepared for the austerity of the due diligence process may find themselves feeling vulnerable, explains Inc. contributor and investment banker Steven Sarwin: "If the owner is not prepared for the rigors of the due diligence, they will likely experience undue stress and potentially diminish their chances of securing a premium price for their life's work."

Roughly six months after being acquired in a $3.2 billion deal, the Learning Thermostat company and Google subsidiary Nest announced, in June, its intention to merge with Dropcam, developers of a wireless, high-definition surveillance camera that streams video to a user's computer, phone or tablet in real time.

Down payments vary depending on the type of loan you take out to make the acquisition. Having a clear idea of what you can realistically afford will narrow down your search for a viable business to acquire.

Nest acquired Dropcam for $555 million, and Google recently began implementing the additional capabilities it obtained as a result of the technology merger, integrating the Nest thermostat with Dropcam so users can choose to have the surveillance camera activate automatically when the thermostat is set to "away."

According to a new study, the rate of mergers in the global auto industry has reached a seven-year high. In the first half of 2014, 250 deals in the industry, valued at $27.5 billion, marked a 13 percent increase over last year, which saw 222 deals.

Company mergers and acquisitions are an important event for both parties. In addition to changing staff size, members and roles and building the new company's brand, business acquisitions often receive publicity - perhaps more attention than a company would normally get.

Both manufacturers and suppliers have witnessed the shift toward consolidation, which comes at a time when global auto sales are projected to rise nearly 40 percent by 2020. That number currently stands at 83 million units and may grow to as many as 109 million.

Company mergers and acquisitions are an important event for both parties. In addition to changing staff size, members and roles and building the new company's brand, business acquisitions often receive publicity - perhaps more attention than a company would normally get.

Personnel and departmental consolidation are a given in any merger. Naturally, integrating the moving parts of two or more operations requires some compromise, strategy and lateral thinking. However, in the last ten years, technology has further complicated the hurdles companies must clear to bridge a successful merger.

In the mergers-and-acquisitions romantic comedy Working Girl, the dramatic climax comes when protagonist Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) proves her M&A bona fides to an executive in an elevator. It's unclear where the trope of an "elevator pitch" began, but culturally, we fantasize about that critical moment when we win a client or partner over in under a minute.

Because web applications are a new frontier in business strategy, absorbing one system into another, migrating data across platforms and training staff has less precedent than, say, adjusting a company's real estate portfolio. More and more, cloud-based technologies are changing the way employees interface with one another, as well as the work they do.

In reality, mergers are often more protracted, less cinematic affairs. Months or years of wooing and contemplation can pass before parties in a merger agree to move ahead, but that doesn't render the elevator pitch totally obsolete. Especially in networking opportunities, preparing your elevator pitch can be the start of a conversation that leads to expansion or a big payday for your company.

Amazon has announced its intention to acquire Rooftop Media, an online service that gives comedy fans access to content produced by professional comedians, for an undisclosed amount.

Rooftop, founded in 2006, provides content obtained by taping comedy shows every night of the week, and the company states on its website that over 5,000 professional comedians, writers and film makers contribute material on a daily basis. That material is then available to be streamed or, in some cases, viewed on demand.