Successful Acquisitions

PLANNING THE OUTCOME

A key aspect of your preparation is sitting down with your A-Team and figuring out what you want to learn from this first face-to-face meeting. One approach is to identify your “Top Ten” burning questions about the prospect. Through research, you have already developed a profile of the target company, so where are the holes in your knowledge? These gaps become items for your list. Perhaps you need more clarity about the company’s financial health, or more about the management structure—facts you were unable to acquire through your initial phone contacts. You are not trying to perform your entire due diligence in this first meeting. Rather, you are looking for clarity in your impressions of the target company and how it realistically ...