Acquisitions

The Art of M&A Integration is indeed an Art Book. It might help you in choosing your watercolors, but will not teach you how to paint.

Lajoux continues to give excellent guidance on the art of merger integration. Her summaries, although brief, are easily digestable and understandable, without being superficial. Lajoux relies on experts and solid sources for further guidance, structuring the book in a Socrates "Q&A" format that keeps the reader absorbed and interested. It is evident that Lajoux's aim is to be thorough in scope, yet not overwhelm the reader with voluminous data on any one aspect of postmerger integration. Her concise, albeit compehensive work will be a useful guide for management in my company, which has undergone several acquistions in recent years and anticipates more in the future. Lajoux deserves high marks for her excellent work.

Alexandra Lajoux's new book greatly expands on her considerable earlier commentary on M&A activity, focusing on what happens after the knot is tied and the many loose ends that need tending to: employee communications, financial controls, information technology, management misunderstandings, compensation issues, and cultural clashes, to name but a few. Regardless of the amount of thought and planning that may have shaped the prenuptial agreement, the actual merging, or integration, of two corporate entities inevitably brings surprises. One purpose of this comprehensive book is to help the reader to minimize the impact of unforeseen problems. The book is rich with examples of both historically significant and current mergers, yet because of its question-and-answer format is easily accessible and in fact a good read. Ms. Lajoux, having observed and reported on M&A and corporate governance for over twenty years, knows whereof she writes but nonetheless calls on the knowledge of many others as well. The fifty experts in various facets of M&A who contributed in one way or another to this book are identified for the readers' convenience. One measure of the scope of this book is the fact that its index, in fine print, takes up a good dozen pages. In summary, The Art of M&A Integration: A Guide to Merging Resources, Processes, and Responsibilities, is a thorough guided tour through the field and, not incidentally, a giant check list of potential pitfalls and opportunities along the way.

I've recommended this book to several friends.

When purchasing a company you need to know what to look for and where to look for it and what it is you are looking at when you get the information you asked for.

If you are selling your company you need to know what someone SHOULD be looking for, where they will look for it, and the kinds of conclusions they should be drawing from what they are seeing.

This book is an incredibly valuable resource in this process. It is organized very logically and is a series of questions and answers so you can hop around to the information you need for the moment. However, it is also written in such a lively manner that it is easy to read from beginning to end. I happen to be fascinated by this topic and think this is an incredibly helpful handbook.

I think that the way you conduct due dilligence says a lot about your chances of success with an acquisition. And I also think that if someone is trying to buy you, you can tell a lot about them by what they want to know and the conclusions they draw from what they see. In either case it behooves you to invest time and a couple of books in a book like this. Well, in this book.

I found this book insightful, well organized, and thorough in covering highly complicated subject matter. Of greater importance was the author's ability to minimize discussion of theory and provide an excellent discussion of the practical aspects of doing a deal.

Alexandra Reed LaJoux has done it again. Her most recent book on "The Art of M&A Due Diligence" is a valuable tool for the seasoned practitioner as well as the neophyte. She and her co-author Charles Elson effectively combine the big picture with relevant detail so that the reader has a clear understanding of not only the critical concepts but of the process of "due diligence." I found the chapter dedicated to "transactional due diligence" particularly useful. I would recommend this book to anyone serious about transactional work, either as a lawyer, investment banker, or businessperson.

After scanning several books on the subject, this one looked like the most useful and usable of the batch. The Art of M&A provides solid, detailed and precise information for people in companies making acquisitions. It is a good introduction to the topic and long term resource for specifics.

The very size of this book on such a specialized topic may seem daunting. However, the writing is so lively and the organization by question and answer is so easy to use that you will find this a very useful and comprehensive handbook.

It is NOT a theory laden textbook. Rather, it is a very useful and practical guide to the field and will help the careful reader avoid many pitfalls. There are many ways to make mistakes in buying companies and this book can open your eyes to quite of few of them. In fact, if you are the target of a buyout, this book can be of special importance and interest.

I admit to being fascinated by this topic so take that into consideration when evaluating what I say about this book. But even so, mergers and acquistions are so much in the news (for good and ill) that it can only help to get more background on what is really going on and how these deals are (or at least should be) put together.

The book reads MUCH shorter than its size and is fairly comprehensive on the subject - from the methods in selecting candidates for acquisition to what to do when you are a target of an acquisition to some very specialized topics. It also deals with M&A issues with both public, private, and even family firms.

Honestly, I am surprised at how glad I am that I bought this book. It is terrific.

This is a fantastic reference tome for anyone involved with M&A. As a private equity Associate, I have found this book to be invaluable on multiple levels as both a reference guide for securities law, as well as for procedural issues such as sample formats for term sheets, DD check lists, etc.

Also, while it is a dense read, I think this would be invaluable for people just entering either Investment Banking or Private Equity to read as an introduction to the rules, regulations and procedures surrounding mergers/acquisitions.

As one of the members of the Arsenal Ship Government team, I was pleased to see the comprehensive and frank insights to the program provided by the book. Rand Corp was hired by the program office at the beginning to document what was a ground-breaking experiment in Navy ship acquisition and they did an outstanding job of capturing the complete story. They pull no punches in describing the program's development, with views from both industry and Government, and the reasons for its ultimate demise. Everyone interested in Naval history will find this a fascinating read.