Book Description

What does it take to build a successful corporate alliance? The dramatically high failure rate -- estimated at 60 to 75% -- suggests that alliance managers often lack the knowledge and skills to determine strategic fit, negotiate win-win agreements, align organizational cultures, and -- perhaps most important of all -- get people to work together productively. This book provides the practical guidance needed to make alliances work. In The Strongest Link, strategic alliance experts Slowinski and Sagal draw on over 40 years of experience working with companies to form strong, profitable collaborations, including AT&T, NEC, Battelle, Eli Lilly, and Procter & Gamble. Packed with stories of these and other companies, the book features exclusive, proven methodologies for planning, structuring, and negotiating an alliance, as well as strategies for training participants in collaborative management.

The Strongest Link is a true field guide, a down-in-the-trenches look at how to avoid the troubles that plague so many alliance efforts and how to forge a collaborative link that adds value to all participants. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Very comprehensive. A real advance in alliance management
The Strongest Link, a treatise on the management of corporate alliances by George Slowinski and Matt Sagal, has come towards the end of my career. This is too bad, since it is an excellent and comprehensive book on this topic, building on the twenty years of experience that the authors bring to the topic.

Based on this extensive experience gained from working on dozens of alliances, they have developed an "Alliance Framework" that covers the topic - from deal conception to the termination clauses. This systematic structure, using a six-step process, covers the process from end to end, and the text is full of useful advice on almost every aspect of success and potential failure. Given the extensive experience of the authors, they have seen just about everything that could and does happen, and developed scenarios to both exploit opportunities and counter challenges.

The authors admit that "creating and managing strategic alliances is an art" - but to help the "struggling artist" they have crafted an excellent how-to book. Despite their protestations that their Alliance Framework is "not a step by step check list", any alliance manager could do much worse than follow its advice to the letter.

The book is not an easy read. It is not to be skimmed on a flight to Tokyo. Rather the serious alliance manager will lock themselves in their office with pen and pad, and pour over the book page by page, to get the full benefit of the wealth of experience that the authors bring to the subject.

The book could benefit from more detail on individual deals. While the authors have distilled the essence of their multiple experiences, the readers could better learn from individual and practical examples. Although confidentiality is always as issue, whatever can be done describe real examples beyond the Battelle alliance, would significantly enhance the value of the book.

The best book on this subject
I have read most of the books on strategic alliances. The Strongest Link is the first book I have found that provides practical, insightful, and detailed help on just what I should do to plan, negotiate, and implement these relationships. It will be immediately useful to anyone from a CEO or other corporate executives to managers who have specific alliance responsibilities. Give a copy to everyone in your company who deals with alliances.

Very useful book
Most books on alliances give broad advice or a 50,000 foot view of the topic. This book is different. It provides practical tools. My team now uses the Alliance Framework and Alliance Implementation Program to create and manage our deals.

The Best Book on Alliances
As a business Student who studied coporate alliances, and a corporate personel who has witnessed the planning and implementation of alliances, i believe "the strongest Link" deserves the highest ranking on the subject. This book is a MUST read for all CEOs and everyone in mangement, especially those who make decisions on alliances. This is an excellent book.

GREAT BOOK
his book is a must read for anyone who's involved in Strategic Alliance or seeking to learn more about it. It's very well written, well organized and most importantly it identifies key issues and addresses them with excruciating details. I would strongly recommend it to business managers, people responsible for strategic development, and students. ... Read more

Book Description

In the high-stakes world of mergers and acquisitions, Bruce Wasserstein is a legend. With more than one thousand deals under his belt, including many of the largest, Wasserstein is uniquely positioned to tell the story of the buyouts, mergers, and takeovers that have created the extraordinary changes in the corporate landscape over the past three decades.

In BIG DEAL, Bruce Wasserstein captures the evolution of modern deal-making-from the go-go conglomerate days of the 1960s and 1970s...to the hostile takeover environment of the 1980s...to the billion-dollar strategic corporate deals of the 1990s. He unveils the details of major transactions and portrays key individuals. And he offers a front-row seat to the most famous takeover brawls of our time, providing a rare opportunity to watch Viacom, ITT, Time Warner, AT&T, IBM, and heavy hitters Henry Kravis, Ron Perelman, Barry Diller, and others in action.

Wasserstein also focuses his perceptive vision on the recent wave of corporate mergers and acquisitions. He explains why entire industries-media and telecommunications, financial services, healthcare-are roiling with change, and how fundamental market developments have triggered the latest merger boom.

Highly readable, BIG DEAL is a book for anyone interested in the drama and technique of deals. Participant, observer, and analyst, Bruce Wasserstein has written the definitive book on America's toughest industry: the business of the BIG DEAL. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

The M&A Handbook - Wasserstein is the M&A king
As a former summer M&A analyst at the M&A boutique formerly known as Wasserstein Perella, I had the opportunity to work for the man who wrote the essential "handbook on M&A." This book describes in great detail, not to mention with some exciting stories, the processes of the M&A transaction. In my opinion, Wasserstein is the king of the M&A world, having executed some of the largest deals in the industry. Although long, the book does provide lots of information about the deal-making process.

For anyone interested in the process of the M&A deal, the Big Deal, especially the updated 2000 version, is essential. During my summer at the firm, I got to experience the very workings that the book describes as happening during a deal. The book artfully uses Wasserstein's real-life experiences to add excitement, credibility, and clarity to understanding what happens during an M&A deal. This book, however, does not read like a novel, but more like a textbook laden with actual examples to explain its points. I would recommend this book to serious investment bankers who enjoy such technical readings. For a more humerous read or novel-like book, try either Monkey Business or Den of Theives. While not as technically sound, their intentions are different, as they are more story-telling driven books. The Big Deal can essentially be used as a textbook.

Great book: very useful
Wasserstein's depth of knowledge shows in this extremely readable guide to the world of m&a. Wasserstein is obviously a very smart man, and the level of insight he brings to this book is impressive.

Profiles break up the text and provide useful, often colorful, snapshots of some of capitalism's heavist hitters.

I heartily recomend BIG DEAL to anyone interested in the world of investment banking.

Big Deal:2000 and Beyond
Mr Wasserstein's work is not only very interesting amazingly readable, but also practically very useful and informative for businessmen, researchers, academicians and policy makers.

The Indian Government's policy makers can take a number of ideas from the book before they start experimenting with the unfolding economy, i.e., after decades of controlled regime. The practical and experiential lessons given by the author will help the policy makers navigate more dexterously while sailing on doubtful and controversial waters of corporate legislation and governmental control.
As a Ph D scholar, I find it very useful and I have no hesitation in recommending it to fellow students and to our Institute's (Birla Institute of Management Technology, New Delhi) library.
It would be even more useful if an updated publication of the book may be brought out that would include a chapter on M&A Pricing and Valuation.

Boring, dull full of hot air
What was BW trying to achieve with this book, leaves a reader dis satisfied, their is no continuity in the book and sometimes it seems like several people have written the book, to me it seems like B.W. and several of his underlings sat togather and wrote this book in a single day

Highly Recommended!
M&A tycoon Bruce Wasserstein has not just studied the high-stakes world of corporate mergers & acquisitions, he's lived it. As head of M&A at First Boston and then as leader of his own firm, Wasserstein has played a role in many pivotal corporate marriages. In these pages, Wasserstein comprehensively examines the hows and whys of history's largest deals. While skirting the fundamental question of whether mergers & acquisitions enhance or depress shareholder value over the long term, Wasserstein conveys an overwhelming amount of information about the dynamics and tactics that define M&A. The book is enormous and encyclopedic, so it might serve better as a reference text than a straight-through read. We [...] strongly recommend this book for both its compelling historic accounts of Wall Street's most important deals and deal makers and its detailed breakdown of how the game actually works.
... Read more

Book Description

A twenty-first-century update to the modern business classic . . .

For more than fifteen years, this handy guide has provided entrepreneurs and small business owners with a simple, step-by-step plan for buying or selling a business–without their own special team of lawyers and accountants. Written by leading business attorney Robert Klueger, this up-to-date guide now includes everything you need to know about recent tax law changes, as well as an entirely new chapter on limited liability companies. It answers all your critical questions, covering everything from the valuation of a business through the negotiation stages to closing the deal.

Packed with the kind of real-world guidance you can only get from a professional, Buying & Selling a Business, Second Edition shows you how to:

• Choose a business that’s right for you
• Evaluate the business, determine why the seller is selling, analyze the seller’s operations, and analyze balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow
• Negotiate effectively–including negotiating for price, timing, stock and asset agreements, noncompetitive agreements, and more
• Buy a franchise–key considerations that make a franchise different
• Ensure a hassle-free closing with no surprises

Book Description

A detailed and authoritative practitioner work on mergers and acquisitions of companies in the US and UK, this will be an important reference for lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic (including all major companies with dealings in those jurisdictions). It covers law and practice in the US and UK in equal detail: the US chapters cover both federal and key state regulatory regimes; UK chapters include coverage of the City Code and developments in the European Union. The author combines a strong academic background with extensive experience as a practicing lawyer with the US firm Shearman & Sterling, one of the top mergers and acquisitions firms in the world. ... Read more

Reviews (16)

Be prepared! Know your facts!
This book is alarmingly well-organized, well-written and helpful. It's so thorough you'll feel like you paid the highest paid consultant a fortune to learn this stuff! What a help this book is to every one thinking of buying a business. Congratulations on an exemplary book, Mr. Smorenburg. I know it has helped me.

A must have for anyone thinking of buying a business!!
Having read a lot of business books that try too hard to impress, I found this book conveyed a complex subject in such a simple way that I felt like throwing in my day job come Monday. I am planning to become an entrepreneur in the near future, and now feel 100% more prepared to face the risks.

Even if you're planning to start a business from scratch, I'd highly recommend that you first get your hands on a copy. The author really paints a powerful picture in favor of acquisition and teaches you how you can instantly have a positive cashflow.

Also, where most similar titles gloss over how you should find a business to buy, I can see that the strategy Mr. Smorenburg has developed to match your aptitude to the marketplace makes all the sense in the world and is bound to save you tens of thousands of dollars.

Even if you don't read the book and only use the 300-question checklist at the back, the book is worth ten times its cover price. But don't just stop there, I can highly recommend giving it a read from cover to cover and passing it on to people you like and care about. This is a handbook that offers practical experience in a simple and easy to read format.

I really could not recommend it more highly. Excellent, excellent, excellent. I was very impressed - clearly an author with heaps of experience in the real world.

Not everything you need to know
This is not everything you need to know to buy a business, it's not even close. This is a bird's-eye view of buying a business. I would recommend Yegge's books over this one. There you will learn not only the process, but also valuation techniques.

Spend you money elsewhere
I'm an individual looking for a book to help me with my first purchase of a small business. I bought this book and read it from front to back and I did not find it helpful at all. I cannot think of one single useful thing that this book taught me. It practically didn't uncover anything that I hadn't already thought of. I assumed it would be full of invaluable information that only a experienced person that has purchased business before would know, but it isn't. It is a total disappointment. I would consider it a 100% waist of time.

A Knock-Off
Disappointing. I found this book to be a knockoff of Richard A. Joseph's earlier book, "How To Buy A Business" (Publ. 1994) - which I recommend over this. This book (Business Buyer's Kit) does appear to have some seemingly original value in the "Checklist" appendices at the book's end. Although somewhat simple and limited, they do provide the novice a basis for getting organized and doing research. For my money, Richard A. Joseph's, "How To Buy A Business", is a better value. ... Read more

Book Description

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO NAVIGATING TODAY’S FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY

From "one-stop shopping" for financial services to major structural shifts within the industry, rapid changes in information technology, trends toward business combinations, statutory laws, and global competition have contributed to breaking down the geographic and product barriers that once separated traditional financial institutions from other financial entities. This complete authoritative resource is designed for all financial professionals involved in business valuations, mergers, and acquisitions, and includes:

• How operations are regulated
• How organizations are valued and why they merge
• Related accounting standards
• Merger and acquisition processes
• The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Modernization Act of 1999
• Target bank analysis and tax requirements

. . . and much more. Written by an expert in the field, Financial Institutions, Valuations, Mergers, and Acquisitions is an essential tool for keeping up with the increasing and crucial changes in the financial services industry. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

There are other, better books in the subject.
For this specialized topic, this book is either too introductory or the contents are not organized well. I will be surprised if anyone can value a bank, or even get close to valuation, after reading this book. If you are interested in bank valuation, I recommend Commercial Bank Valuation by Miller. ... Read more

Book Description

Merger and acquisition activity is breaking records-there are more transactions every year and the size of the transactions is constantly going up as well. However, a merger, acquisition, or divestiture deal is only as good as the information on which it is based. This guide details how and where M&A experts go online to compile lists of companies that are in the market to buy or sell, find the prices paid for similar businesses, and identify the legal issues that may surface in a given purchase or sale. Business researchers will find sources for hard-to-find information on companies that may be privately held, subsidiaries of another company, or based outside of the United States. Thirteen super searchers from widely varying backgrounds contributed their best sources so this book will be extremely helpful to researchers in virtually any field of mergers and acquisitions. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

How to acquire the details about growth-oriented companies
Super Searchers On Mergers & Acquisitions reveals the online search services and tools used by leading researchers, who regularly use the Internet to uncover critical details on companies and industries. The focus on mergers and acquisitions and how to acquire the details about growth-oriented companies will please any business owner, broker, appraiser or business buyer.

Jan Tudor is simply the best
Jan Tudor is simply the best guide avaliable for climbing the summit of M&A research on-line or off. A professional researcher's professional her stellar reputation in the industry has insured a host of illustrative interviews, techniques, and fine honed observations from across the M&A landscape. ... Read more

Amazon.com

No matter what happens in the future with the tech sector in general or to Cisco Systems in particular, the company that made the router almost a household name will be known forever as a bellwether behemoth in the networking industry--and one who got that way largely through a shrewd acquisition strategy. Inside Cisco, by veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ed Paulson, examines how the company nimbly absorbed 70 firms since 1993 and, at least until the postmillennial tech crash, managed to leverage the people and technology it added into impressive, continual advancement. "In fact," Paulson writes, "the company has been so successful with its acquisitions that the industry created a new term for Cisco's type of research and development approach: acquisition and development." With an eye toward making this agile, adaptive strategy accessible to others, Paulson analyzes the practice and rationale behind it and then assesses how portable its elements are to other companies and industries. Explorations of everything from due diligence to the integration of personnel, products, and production are supplemented by specific examples, comments from people directly involved, and Paulson's own experienced perspective. --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Reviews (7)

A textbook for M&A managers
Please allow me to disclose my bias... I am a former Cisco M&A, or as Ed Paulson would say a
Cisco A&D (Acquisitions and Development).
And a disclaimer: These comments are my own, and represent my own opinions, not Cisco Systems's.

To position Ed's book, let's first look at the current body of M&A research.

"We know surprisingly little about mergers and acquisitions, despite the
buckets of ink spilled on the topic. In fact our collective knowledge can be
summed up in a few short sentences", noted Joseph Bower in his article "Not
all M&A are alike - and that's what matters" (Harvard Business Review, March
2001). A year later, Roy Harris wrote in his article "A lesson before
buying: University executive-education programs tackle one of the business
world's toughest jobs: Teaching M&A",

"You feel the question taking shape in the opening lecture of Robert
Holthausen's "Mergers and Acquisitions" class. As the Wharton professor
recounts the problems with deal-making today, ticking off two dozen reasons
why mergers fail--from valuation errors to culture clashes--the discouraging
statistics fly by on the screen behind him. McKinsey says 74 percent of
deals fail to create shareholder value, KPMG says it's 83 percent. At last,
the inevitable hand shoots up in front: 'Is this going to be a class about
why we shouldn't acquire anybody?'" (May, 2002, CFO The Magazine for Senior
Financial Executives)

Paulson's "Inside Cisco: The Real Story of Sustained M&A Growth" provides a
well researched analysis on how to do successful M&As. I hope the book will
be used as a textbook at many American and international executive M&A
programs.

Insightful!
There's no reason to beat around the bush: This is not an objective history of Cisco. It is an unabashedly adulatory look at one of the most influential companies of the New Economy. If you're looking for a critical assessment of Cisco's business model and execution, look elsewhere. That does not mean that you should ignore Inside Cisco, however. On the contrary, we from getAbstract strongly recommend this book for its detailed dissection of Cisco's acquisition methodology, from its target identification and selection to integration and employee retention. Anyone in business would do well to read this book, study these processes and make them their own.

Growth Through Acquisitions
"To date, your book Inside Cisco: The real story behind sustained M&A growth is my favorite regarding the topic of mergers and acquisitions. I used to work at a Merchant Bank in Irvine doing financial analysis in connection with mergers and acquisitions for a summer and a lot of the work we did involved growth through acquisitions. Your book clearly explains a lot of the rationale behind M&A strategies."

Douglas Lee

A detailed look at an acquisition system that worked!
This is an easy to read book that covers a lot of what made Cisco succeed in the 1990s. I liked the conversational writing style but also got a lot out of the content. A solid book that anyone looking to grow their business through acquisition should read.

inside cisco
A detailed history of one of the most successful M&A companies in American business. Paulson's added insights and suggestions make this more than a narrative history, this book is a practical handbook for anyone doing M&A work. Well-written and fun to read. Another source of keen business advice from this author. Check out his other books, particularly the Idiot's Guide to Starting a Small Business, which I have kept within arm's reach of my desk since it came out. ... Read more

Book Description

"Krallinger has done an excellent job presenting a balanced view of both the opportunities and pitfalls for buyer and seller in the M&A game--a comprehensive discussion of "the process" from the numbers to the all important human factors".--James Hamling, President, Berwind Industries, Inc. Do you have the know-how to assess a potential deal before committing your company's time and money, and then structure the deal so that both sides are satisfied? Can you "Cross the T's and dot the I's that are so critical for finalizing a successful merger or acquisition? Mergers & Acquisitions: Managing the Transaction is the first book to walk you through the entire M&A process whether you are a buyer OR a seller. From Chapter 1 (The Urge to Merge) through Chapter 12 (managing the Closing and Post-Closing Issues) Joseph Krallinger's detailed and insightful book includes all the information you will need, PLUS detailed appendixes covering both legal paperwork and purchase investigation work, to help you arrive at a profitable and advantangeous deal. Sample topics include: Standard merger and Acquisition Pitfalls; Accurate Valuation of a Business or Product Line; Venturing, Cross-Licensing and Partnering. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Excellent Primer, Not for The Detailed Practicioner
At a very high level, Krallinger hits the right points for someone totally unfamilliar with the territory. His bulletted writing style makes for quick, easy reading, but requires you to do the reflection on them later on. I sympathize with other reviewers who found this book pithy and shallow, but they may have been looking for a much more detailed tome. This book prepares the reader to recognize at a high level what the issues are and provides a framework for working through them. That's it. It was perfect for me -- I had one night to think of good things to say before making a presentation that included some M&A issues the next day. All I needed was to be able to identify the issues. For that this is an excellent book. If you really spend time to deconstruct the bullet points, it is probably more profound, and for better or worse, the author left that work to the reader instead of writing a 1,000 page book.

Let us be serious!
This book insults the intelligence of any reader who owns at least one neurone. It also insults other true books concerning mergers and acquisitions. The advices the book contains are like this: "Warning! Don't pay twice for a company. You pay once when you buy it, and you could pay twice if you need to restructure it". Please, pick your brains!

Merge This Book with a Trash Can
I had hoped to use this book as a training tool for my staff - - it's promoted as a guide to the process. However, after evaluating a copy, I believe the better course of action is to have them watch my six year old trade Pokemon cards. There is more logic and strategy behind his activity than in this entire book.

Total waste of paper.
This book is characterized by poor writing, sloppy reasoning, and shallow content. Look elsewhere unless you have too much time and money on your hands.

This book is a stinker!!
I struggled to read this diatribe on Mr. Krallinger's years of M&A experience. The author tries to layout the M&A process to the average business person. He provides an appendix full of checklists, a timeline, and some very common sense do's and don't's. The rest of the book is filled with the author's unsubstantiated assertions, poor economic thinking, and xenophobic biases.

I brought the book to better understand the M&A process from a gritty, in-the-trenches prospective, but walked away feeling that I wasted my time filtering out the author's failings to find a few good nuggets.

Don't waste your time and money on this one. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Making Mergers Work de-mystifies merger dynamics then provides managers and executives hard-hitting action steps for successfully navigating the complicated process of merger integration. It tells managers and executives what to expect in a merger and how to handle it. Instead of improvising on a day-to-day basis, managers can now turn to this pragmatic handbook for clear explanations of: The three fundamental laws for successful mergers motivation, coaching and monitoring; A game plan for overcoming resistance to change; Techniques and timing for managing people through the three stages of a merger; A blueprint for team building. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Review of basic text for M/A, Sales and Buyouts
This text is used by many instructors to provide technical structure to their course curriculum. The topics and content are well organized and provide a solid foundation to first time topic introduction, procedures, and guidelines. ... Read more

Book Description

Why so many mergers fail and what can be done to make them succeed.

Worldwide merger and acquisition activity has run over $100 billion in recent years. But the M&A failure rate is high—roughly half fail and the financial gains of even "successful" mergers are often neutral. Why is this the case? This book argues that the reason is because financial and strategic considerations still dominate merger negotiations and that the "soft" people issues are largely ignored in the belief that they can be sorted out later during the integration phase. In reality, however, people are the real "deal makers" and that it is only when individuals choose to commit their creativity and energy to a merger that the real synergies flow. Merger success is all about leading and managing people—and the people issues need addressing right from the start of negotiations.

Through reference to studies of such mergers as Time Warner/AOL, Chrysler and Daimler-Benz, Compaq and Digital Equipment, and Zeneca and Astra, this book examines where companies so often get things wrong and lays out a clear course for how to get it right. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

NPOs Must Decide While They Have a Choice
Ours is an age of extensive consolidation within and often across specific industries. Regrettably, a majority of corporate mergers and acquisitions do not achieve the desired objectives. In this book, McCormick limits his attention to nonprofits, sharing many valuable lessons he learned from his involvement with various mergers such as divisions of the American Cancer Society. His approach to the subject is not from a legal perspective ("you can get a technical checklist from many competent law firms"); "it is not the contracts that make nonprofit organization (NPO) mergers work, it's the context. It's more about how it feels to the participants than how it is legally structured." (We can only speculate how many more mergers of for-profits would succeed if the focus were on the human context rather than on the legal structure.) McCormick encourages his reader to think about a merger as a strategy to "increase capacity, advance mission, and ensure long-term viability." He notes that NPOs which merge are beginning to "put pressure on small organizations and gradually out-compete them for volunteers, donors, media attention, advocacy, and impact on their cause." Moreover, mergers "produce the capital and capacity for inventiveness. Mergers take competition through cooperation to what I call 'co-operation.' a nonprofit corporate structure that competes better just because of the way it is organized."

The word "mergers" is in the title but the word "partnerships" is in the subtitle and I think much of this book's substantial value is found in what McCormick has to say about partnerships or, if you prefer, strategic alliances. Great benefit can also be derived from the process of determining whether or not to merge with a given candidate. Due diligence may perhaps reveal more information about your own organization than it does about a given candidate. McCormick organizes his material within nine chapters:

Deciding to Merge

Selecting a Merger Partner

Laying the Groundwork with Staff and Volunteers

Negotiating and Determining Structure

Dissolution vs. Merger

Technical and Legal Aspects

Working with Consultants and Attorneys

Transition to Merge

Evaluation and Stewardship

After his Conclusion, McCormick provides 12 appendices which include relevant case histories, informative sample documents, and practical checklists. Who will derive the greatest benefit from this book? Obviously, governing board members as well as senior-level executives in an NPO which is an active merger candidate, either to acquire or be acquired. I also highly recommend this book to governing board members and senior-level executives of all other NPOs which could soon become involved (voluntarily or involuntarily) in merger negotiations or at least in preliminary discussions.

At this point, I presume to offer a suggestion to decision-makers in any NPO: Schedule a 2-3 day off-site workshop and require all participants to read this book in advance. Use its "Table of Contents" for the agenda. The group's objective is to collaborate on a Game Plan (if an active merger candidate) or a Contingency Plan ("just in case"). Here is how McCormick concludes: "There is an old saying that 'ships are safe in port, but that is not why they are built.' Merger is a time for leadership to set sail and captain the organization to a new land. A land of opportunity is made available by the increased capacity of merger with a dynamic partner." To which I add, Bon Chance! When appropriate, Bon Voyage!

A Serious Book for Serious People
................................................... Mr. McCormick's excellent treatment of the subject. Nonprofit Mergers is also an excellent work, but very different in style and tone.

This is a serious book on a difficult subject by someone who has been there. The author's experience and his ability to weave his experience into the narrative was very helpful in establishing his credibility and his "hands-on" as well as his theoretical knowledge of the subject.

I was especially impressed by his assertion, which I share, that nonprofit mergers rarely save any significant money, and should not be advocated or undertaken for economic reasons. There's an easy 4% or so in savings that can be realized from almost any merger; expecting more usually leads to disappointment. The reasons to merge may be "positive:" enhancing efficiency, effectiveness, community image, fundraising ability, etc.; or the reasons may be "negative:" Mr. McCormick has a good explanation of how factors unrelated to mission can lead to a spiral from liability concerns to viability concerns to survivability concerns.

The merger process is detailed, with cogent explanations of the rationale for each step. There are serious legal, financial, and organizational/administrative issues to be faced all along the way, and tips on selecting and working with competent and experienced counsel are included, along with case studies, tables, forms, and samples.

His caution about using counsel specifically trained in nonprofit mergers is well-take, Many specialists in working with for-profit mergers don't appreciate the importance of the emotional issues involved in mergers, and how a single volunteer with (seemingly) no "power" can scuttle the entire process. Nonprofit mergers must be a far more open process than their for-profit counterparts' could ever be.

The book is well-sourced and well-researched, though the attributions sometimes impede the flow of the narrative. Nevertheless, it's a good "hands-on" sourcebook for serious executives and board members contemplating nonprofit mergers. ... Read more

Book Description

THE MCGRAW-HILL EXECUTIVE MBA SERIES

"Executive education is suddenly every CEO's favorite strategic weapon."

--BusinessWeek

Now repackaged in easily transportable paperback editions, these informative titles--written by frontline executive education professors and modeled after the programs of the nation's top business schools--will find new popularity with today's on-the-go, every-second-counts executive.

Book Description

An up-to-date and in-depth examination of intellectual property issues in mergers and acquisitions
In mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property assets can be especially difficult to accurately value, most notably in rapidly evolving high-tech industries. Understanding the factors that create value in intellectual property assets, and the part such assets play in both domestic and international mergers, is vitally important to anyone involved in the merger and acquisition process. This book provides an overview of the intellectual property landscape in mergers and acquisitions and thoroughly covers important topics from financial and accounting concerns to due diligence and transfer issues.
Bringing together some of the leading economists, valuation experts, lawyers, and accountants in the area of intellectual property, this helpful guide acts as an advisor to business professionals and their counsel who need answers for intellectual property questions. The valuation methods presented here are simple and don't require a background in finance. Whether you're a manager or executive, an accountant or an appraiser, Intellectual Property Assets in Mergers and Acquisitions offers all the expert help you need to better understand the issues and the risks in intellectual property assets in mergers and acquisitions. ... Read more