Join a one hour consultation on mergers and acquisitions topics with Dr. Karl Michael Popp. Enjoy the deep insights from many successful acquisitions and integrations. After ordering, we will swiftly set up an online meeting.

What’s in it for you 

1. Strategic Growth Insights and Partnership Opportunities


   Dr. Popp has extensive experience in managing mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships—having overseen over 50 partnerships and more than 35 acquisitions and integrations in the software industry, many at SAP. Speaking with him could offer you valuable guidance on scaling your company , exploring inorganic growth strategies, and potentially finding partnership models that could help expand its reach beyond its current client base.

2. Best Practices in Digitization, AI, and Ecosystem Integration


   Dr. Popp is a recognized expert in digitizing M&A processes, business model innovation, and building successful software platforms and ecosystems. A conversation could enable knowledge exchange on leveraging AI, digitization, and integration into broader software ecosystems, enhancing product offerings and increasing customer value

Applicable VAT will be added to the fees.

Join a one day workshop on mergers and acquisitions topics with Dr. Karl Michael Popp. Enjoy the deep insights from many successful acquisitions and integrations. After ordering, we will swiftly set up the workshop.

This one-day workshop with Dr. Karl Michael Popp gives your leadership team concentrated access to decades of hands-on M&A experience in the global software industry, from strategic growth considerations to the practical realities of due diligence and integration. Drawing on over 50 acquisitions, more than 35 integrations, and extensive work with partnerships and ecosystems, the workshop is tailored to the specific challenges of software companies and investors, including platform strategies and inorganic growth options. Participants benefit from an intensive, interactive format designed to translate lessons from successful deals directly into your current M&A and corporate development agenda.

Across the day, Dr. Popp combines executive-level insights on mergers, acquisitions and strategic partnerships with focused sessions on digitizing M&A processes, leveraging AI, and building resilient software ecosystems and platform business models. Using real-world cases from his work at SAP and as Senior Advisor to private equity and technology clients, he explores how to evaluate software targets, safeguard investments, and design partnership models that extend market reach and customer value. The workshop also addresses business model innovation and ecosystem integration, helping your team identify concrete opportunities for scaling through acquisitions, alliances, or divestitures in line with your strategic objectives.

The format is deliberately pragmatic: you can use the day to stress-test your current M&A pipeline, discuss specific targets or carve-out situations, and develop a clear action plan for next steps in your transaction or portfolio strategy.

After booking, the workshop is swiftly scheduled, with fee-based, full-day delivery on-site or online, and travel and expenses charged separately in addition to the workshop fee and applicable VAT.

M&A Reference Model – Overview

The M&A Reference Model from M&A Automation is an end‑to‑end domain model of the entire mergers and acquisitions lifecycle, spanning from strategy creation through due diligence to post‑merger integration. It specifies the M&A process in a formal, structured way, combining a process model with a rich data model so that every phase can be consistently documented, analyzed, and ultimately automated. The model breaks M&A work into clearly defined tasks (e.g., Embedded M&A Strategy, Finding Potential Targets, Processing the Long and Short List), each with explicit goals, objectives, and classifications such as whether it is a decision or execution task and whether the problem is structured or unstructured. This creates a holistic blueprint that helps organizations move from ad‑hoc dealmaking toward repeatable, systematic M&A execution with shared language and expectations across strategy, finance, legal, and integration teams.

Under the hood, the M&A Reference Model is also a large knowledge base and automation enabler: it defines dozens of roles, hundreds of tasks, over two thousand guiding questions, and a comprehensive data model with hundreds of data objects that are all linked to the tasks that use them. For each task, it specifies required data, typical roles involved, detailed action steps, and extensive question catalogs that guide analysis and decision‑making, while also mapping which actions can be fully, partially, or not yet automated and which M&A tools and technologies (such as analytics, NLP, or AI assistants) are relevant. Tool vendors can license the model as a standardized domain and API layer to build interoperable solutions on top of a common process and data foundation, while M&A teams can use it as a checklist, design template, and analytics engine to assess capabilities, identify gaps, and drive continuous improvement in how they plan and execute acquisitions.

Price will be charged on a yearly basis in this subscription. Data are provided in a JSON file.

It covers the whole M&A lifecycle as about 12,900 linked records in one JSON file of roughly 1.8 MB.

• 2,695 questions for strategy, due diligence and integration phases.

• 1,144 data objects with definitions, and 1,675 links between them.

• 72 tasks with 466 actions, 55 roles and 146 goals and objectives.

• 163 tools from 153 providers.

• 14 types of decision bias, backed by 9 literature sources.

This investor-focused Software Investment Advisory Service by Dr. Karl Popp is designed to safeguard your capital when acquiring or backing a software company, with a clear emphasis on risk mitigation and value creation. You receive a concise but detailed advisory report that delves into strategic fit, scalability, and long-term competitiveness, translating complex technology and market questions into an investor-ready view of the asset. Leveraging his experience as senior advisor to private equity, investment banks and software CEOs, Dr. Popp provides you with an independent perspective that supports disciplined investment decisions.

At the core of the report is an in-depth analysis of market positioning and strategic differentiation, examining how the company competes, defends margins and sustains growth in its segment. The service includes a comprehensive SWOT and market durability assessment, focusing on resilience to technology shifts, new entrants and customer behavior changes over a multi‑year horizon. For investors, this means a structured, forward‑looking view of risk and upside that complements financial due diligence and helps you assess whether the business can deliver the return profile you are targeting.

Building on these insights, Dr. Popp formulates tailored strategic recommendations that can be directly used in investment memos, IC discussions and post‑close value creation planning. These recommendations highlight concrete actions for software company management to sharpen their strategy, strengthen their ecosystem and platform position, and unlock additional growth options—whether organic or through M&A and partnerships. By combining investor-grade analysis with actionable strategic guidance, the Software Investment Advisory Service helps you unlock the potential of your portfolio or target companies, empowers your leadership teams, and instills confidence in the long‑term future of your software investments.