The four hour guide to M&A:

Hacking due diligence

Inspired by Tim Ferriss, this page gives you the hacking rules to survive without damages in due diligence of technology companies.

Motivation

The software industry is all about M&A. M&A is everywhere.

Working in a software company? Watch your back. You might be acquired right now. No problem. Embrace it. Use the rules below.
Not being acquired? Then maybe you should acquire to realize sustainable growth and lock out competitors.

Whatever your situation is, due diligence is a key activity in merger and acquisition activities

M&A Due Diligence rules

Due Diligence Rule 1: Everybody lies.

No kidding, enough tell tales in this world. Getting as much hard facts as possible, is the most important rule. If somebody tells you to cross the road with closed eyes, fine. You better check the facts.
This rule courtesy of Dr. Gregory House. This time, watching TV made a lot of sense.

Due diligence Rule 2: break them before they break you

Set M&A deal breakers to sleep. identify from catalogue of 50 deal brakers. attack, put to sleep, done.

Due Diligence Rule 3: maximize the likelihood of success.

recall statistics? you don´t know the distribution, so 50 percent chance of success is the maximum likelihood best guess. work your way up! get the key success factors during due diligence and monitor them frequently.

Due Diligence Rule 4: minimize deal risk and find sleep

identify from a catalogue of 200 risks during due diligence. identify, mitigate, monitor, done. for some risk: sell them to insurance companies and have somebody else loose their sleep.

Due diligence rule 5: Make your day. Blueprint.

What will life be like on day one? What are the steps/changes/challenges in the first 100 days? What are the goals 12/18/24 months from now? when will integration be done? You better know it. Blueprint it at the end of due diligence!

Due diligence rule 6: Look in the mirror (not the rear view mirror, stupid!)

Look at yourself (the acquiring company) in due diligence. What happens to the acquiring company due to the impact of the acquired company? Will the workload of the post merger integration hit too hard? what will the efforts be? You better use the results of due diligence to determine the impact and plan additional resources.

stay tuned for more simple due diligence rules.....