Shows / M&A Science
M&A Science
M&A Science, hosted by Kison Patel (Founder & CEO of DealRoom), is your go-to podcast for mastering the art of mergers and acquisitions. Each week, Kison and his expert guests from leading brands like Xerox, FastLap, and Cisco dig deep into real-world M&A strategies, offering actionable insights to optimize your M&A practice. Whether you're an experienced practitioner or new to the field, M&A Science provides practical advice on key topics like sourcing, due diligence, integration…
Episodes
M&A ScienceStrategy Drives M&A, Not the Other Way Around
Most corp dev teams let the banker inbox set the agenda. Michael Guptan, who has led or contributed to 120+ transactions worth over $100B across Dell, Walmart…
M&A ScienceHow to Get to Yes
Most people assume the hard part of an M&A deal is getting the contract signed. However, Meg Cavanaugh, SVP of Legal at Commvault (NASDAQ: CVLT), has spent her…
M&A ScienceM&A Horror Stories
A partner's spouse joined a call two weeks from closing. One background check later, a PE deal was dead, along with every dollar spent on diligence and…
M&A ScienceThe Vendor Trap That Derails Carve-Outs
Days before closing a carve-out, Danielle Fortier's team found the seller's vendor list was off by dozens of vendors. Danielle, a partner at Cooley with four…
M&A ScienceHow to Build Trust and Leverage in M&A
"Never use the word 'trust me.' It's those people you can't trust." Jerry Cedicci, Kison Patel's boss from twenty years ago, built hundreds of millions of…
M&A ScienceThe Man Who Taught Kison Patel to See M&A Opportunities
"At the closing table, I left with a check of $10 million." Jerry Cedicci bought a run-down Chicago hotel for $14 million and sold it for $24 million within a…
M&A ScienceWhy PE Rollups Fail the People Who Built the Business
A $100 million preferred equity check with a 15% compounding floor needs $200 million back in five years, and all of it sits ahead of the producers holding…
M&A ScienceWhy M&A Integration Fails Without Leadership Enablement
Kim Jones, HR Director of M&A One acquired CEO slowed his own deal by a month or two to lock down customer commitments and build relationships with buyer…
M&A ScienceThe Seller's Power Shift: How to Defend Valuation After the LOI
Praveen Ghanta, Founder and CEO of DevHawk Twenty-four hours before diligence expired, the buyer's board came back and cut the offer by almost 50%. Praveen…
M&A ScienceThe Discount Is the Wrong Question in Private Equity Secondaries
Richard Chow, Partner at PJT Partners (NYSE: PJT) Everyone asks the same first question in a secondaries deal: what's the discount. Richard Chow, a partner at…
M&A ScienceHow to Finance Acquisitions Without Giving Up Equity
Bill Stone, Founder and CEO of SS&C How do you keep buying companies without eventually losing control of the company you built? SS&C Technologies founder and…
M&A ScienceWhere AI Actually Helps and Fails in M&A Legal Work
Aaron Binstock, Partner, Co-Head of Private Equity Practice at Cooley LLP Aaron walks Kison Patel through where AI earns its keep in M&A legal work. It drafts…
M&A ScienceThe Back-Office Surprises Nobody Warned You About When Going Global
Jennifer Lipschultz, Sr. Director Merger & Acquisition Integration and Corporate Project Management Due diligence said the target's employees were fluent in…
M&A ScienceHow to Structure an Acquihire Deal in the AI Talent Race
Derek Liu, M&A Partner at Baker McKenzie Acquihires used to be priced at roughly a million dollars per engineer. Now buyers pay hundreds of millions, sometimes…
M&A ScienceWhat Buyers Want from Bankers and Founders
Andrew Morbitzer, VP of Corporate Development, Life360 (ASX: 360) Inbound deals have an "infinitesimally small chance" of landing on a buyer's shortlist of two…
M&A Science220 Deals. One Playbook. How to Scale M&A Without Losing Control
Shawn Rodricks, Head of M&A - Independent Consultant "I can be the best corp dev individual in the world. I get my integrations wrong, I've lost the…
M&A ScienceHow to Build a Deal Model That Beats PE on Price
Jeremy Segal, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, Progress (NASDAQ: PRGS) Progress beat several reputable PE firms for Chef without paying more…
M&A ScienceThe People You Lose in M&A: Key Talent Retention Before Close
Haseeb Jawad, VP and Head of Corporate Development, Commvault (NASDAQ: CVLT) Most acquirers build retention around the bonus. Haseeb Jawad puts money third…
M&A ScienceHow to Buy Companies That Aren't Profitable Yet
Matt Arsenault, VP of Corporate Development & Strategic Alliances at Jamf "A $25 million M&A deal today can be just as valuable to a founding team as a $125…
M&A ScienceWhen Deals Get Weird: Stories You Don't See in the CIM
Nathan Rust, Lutz Lehmann, Troy Pospisil, Jeremy Segal, Patrick Mumman, Tej Brahmbhatt, George Helock, and Angie Astle A background check killed a deal a week…
M&A ScienceThe Real Work Behind the Close: When Judgment Beats the Checklist
Brent Baxter, Sam Delestienne, Steve Hoffman, John Strenger, and Matt Melsen "Reputation and trust can make up for a $15 million bid difference." Sam…
M&A ScienceThe Nordic Compounder Playbook: How Jörgen Wigh Runs 85 Companies With 22 HQ Staff and No Integration
Jörgen Wigh, CEO of Lagercrantz Group Lagercrantz Group targets a 10% deal failure rate. On purpose. "That's very un-American to say that, but there needs to…
M&A ScienceThe Nordic Compounder Playbook: How Lagercrantz Bought 90 Companies and Never Sold One
Jörgen Wigh, CEO of Lagercrantz Group Lagercrantz Group targets a 10% deal failure rate. On purpose. "That's very un-American to say that, but there needs to…
M&A ScienceM&A Integration Technology: What Actually Works
Jim Buckley, VP M&A Integration at Coursera | Todd Manley, VP of Corp Dev Integration at Intel | Carey Pugh is Sr. Director, M&A Corporate Integration at Ansys…
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Partner Before You Buy: The Pre-Acquisition Strategy Corp Dev Teams Skip
Tomer Stavitsky is SVP and Chief Corporate Development Officer at Omnicell (NASDAQ: OMCL) At a previous employer, Tomer Stavitsky's acquisition started as a…
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How M&A Turns a Chemical Company Into a Tech Business
Chandradev Mehta, SVP Strategy and Business Development at Hexion Inc. "You can execute a really strong deal, get a really good price, but unless you integrate…
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CPG Exit Strategy: How to Build a Consumer Brand Strategics Will Acquire | Keith Levy Part 2
Keith Levy, Operating Partner at Sonoma Brands Capital Roughly $50 million in top-line revenue, with EBITDA approaching double digits. That's the minimum Keith…
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CPG Due Diligence: The Operator Framework Behind a $1B Exit | Keith Levy Part 1
Keith Levy, Operating Partner at Sonoma Brands Capital Keith Levy won't open the P&L until the founder passes. "If that one doesn't pass the sniff test, you…
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400 Acquisitions and a Failed Process: What Happens When You Don't Integrate
Matt James, EVP, CFO & Chief Acquisition Officer at Oakbridge Insurance Billion-dollar roll-ups are failing their sale processes because buyers find multiple…
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M&A Roll-Up Playbook: The IRR Framework That Replaced Budgets at Zayo | Dan Caruso (Part 2)
Dan Caruso, Managing Director, Caruso Ventures; Founding CEO of Zayo Group Zayo never had budgets. For 14 years, Dan Caruso ran the company on a question most…
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M&A Roll-Up Playbook: How Zayo Did 45 Acquisitions and Sold for $14B | Dan Caruso (Part 1)
Dan Caruso, Managing Director, Caruso Ventures; Founding CEO of Zayo Group About $1 billion of equity went into Zayo across roughly 45 deals. When it sold…
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Cross-Border M&A: Doing Deals in Latin America
Rodrigo Dominguez Sotomayor, Partner at White & Case LLP A billion-dollar deal died a week before signing over 40% versus 42%. A private equity fund retraded…
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Partnering Before Purchasing: How Booz Allen Wins Proprietary Deals Early
Chrissy Cox, VP & Head of Corporate Development, Booz Allen Hamilton "If we get a banker inbound for a company and we've never heard of it before... it's…
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Cultural Fit Over EBITDA: How Salas O'Brien Built a 30-Merger Program Without a Single Failure
Nathan Rust, Senior VP of Corporate Development, Salas O'Brien More than 30 mergers in three years. A 100 percent success rate. And a first diligence list…
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Cross-Border M&A: How to Do Deals in Italy with Mauro Sambati and Donato Romano
Mauro Sambati, Partner – Gianni & Origoni Donato Romano, Partner – Gianni & Origoni In 2022, the Italian government ordered a 2018 deal undone. A Hong Kong…
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Four Questions That Defined a $1 Billion Deal with Robert Lovegrove
President & CEO of The ChemQuest Group. Previously, as VP of Corporate Strategy at Milliken & Company Close to 100 people. Roughly 18 functions running…
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Stop Falling in Love with the Deal: Guardrails for High-Volume Acquisitions with Birgitta and Lars Elfversson
Birgitta Elfversson, Non-executive director at Netlight Consulting AB Lars Elfversson, VP/Co-Founder, Netlight Consulting AB Most deal teams think they're…
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The Next Chapter After 400 Episodes
No guest today. No interview. Just Kison talking directly to you. After 400 episodes and nearly 100 founding members, Kison wanted to give you a real update -…
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Integration Focused M&A: Why Execution Should Inform Strategy Before You Sign Part 2 with Ciprian Stan
Ciprian Stan, M&A Integration Manager at SALESIANER Gruppe Tens of thousands of Excel cells. That's what one target counted in the standard integration plan…
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Integration Focused M&A: Why Execution Should Inform Strategy Before You Sign Part 1 with Ciprian Stan
Ciprian Stan, M&A Integration Manager at SALESIANER Gruppe Most M&A deals fail because integration was "something to figure out later". By the time execution…
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How Experienced Buyers Actually Make M&A Work with Carlos Cesta
Carlos Cesta, Partner at Makanta Services "Inexperienced teams design structures to win negotiations. Experienced teams design structures to make the business…
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A Founder's Guide to Lean M&A Strategy with Christian Hassold
Christian Hassold, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategic Partnerships at Wpromote x Giant Spoon "A hundred opportunities in your funnel…
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How Integration Debt, Cultural Friction, and Communication Failures Kill M&A Deals with Donara Jaghinyan
Donara Jaghinyan – Transformation and Integration Leader "A hundred opportunities in your funnel will likely only materialize one to two actionable…
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Why Integrations Break: TSAs, Carve-Outs, and the Hidden Dependencies That Derail M&A Deals with Donara Jaghinyan
Donara Jaghinyan – Transformation and Integration Leader "Usually what happens with TSAs is lots of extensions where companies lose time and money." Donara…
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Building Your M&A Reputation: Why Relationships Beat Transactions Every Time with Andrew Cohen
Andy Cohen, Vice President of Corporate Development at F5 Andy Cohen spends two to 10 hours researching a founder before the first call. After 30 years in M&A…
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My Daughter Interviews Me About M&A | Holiday Special Episode with Shyla Patel
Kison Patel mailed 300 letters to find his family's home. Six people wrote back. The house he bought came with no auction, no bidding war, and a verbal offer…
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How to Score Culture Fit in M&A with Sharon Van Zeeland
Sharon Van Zeeland, Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation scores the culture of acquisition targets…
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Making M&A Boring (And Why That's a Good Thing) with Leon Brujis
Leon Brujis, Partner and Co-Head of U.S. at 65 Equity Partners Many of 65 Equity Partners' deals take a year to two years to come together, and Leon Brujis…
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Integration Starts with Hiring, Not the Deal with Brandon Batt
Brandon Batt – Chief People and Transformation Officer at Quadient When Quadient announced its new strategy in 2019, it closed two divestments and an…
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Strategic M&A Framework: IFS's Acquisition Playbook with Rachel Hindley
Rachel Hindley, Vice President of Corporate Development, IFS Rachel oversees transformative acquisitions for the global leader in industrial AI and enterprise…
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Mastering Carve-Out Transactions with Keith Crawford
Keith Crawford, Global Head of Corporate Development and M&A at State Street Corporation Keith Crawford, Global Head of Corporate Development and M&A at State…
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Integration-Led M&A: Cisco's Approach to Deal Success Part 2 with Johanna Jaakola and Tesia Hostetler
Johanna Jaakola – Integration Lead, Corporate Development Integration Team, Cisco Tesia Hostetler – Leader, Acquisition Integration Practice, Cisco. Cisco…
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Integration-Led Diligence: Cisco's M&A Approach with Johanna Jaakola & Tesia Hostetle
Johanna Jaakola – Integration Lead, Corporate Development Integration Team, Cisco Tesia Hostetler – Leader, Acquisition Integration Practice, Cisco At Cisco…
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When Integration Beats Roll-Ups with Tim Hall
Tim Hall - Managing Partner and Founder, Brenton Point Capital Tim Hall buys small companies at five to six times EBITDA and has typically sold the platforms…
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Buyer-Led M&A™ Strategy at Snowflake with Stefan WIlliams
Stefan Williams - Vice President of Corporate Development and Snowflake Ventures at Snowflake "When you do the deal, that's the beginning for the company."…
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Corporate Development Strategy: Notion's M&A Approach with Hilary Shirazi
Hilary Shirazi - Head of Corporate Development at Notion On one deal, Hilary Shirazi's team was buying a startup of fewer than 50 people and ended up with 75…
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How Corporate Venture Capital 2.0 is Reshaping M&A with Jennifer Miller
Jennifer Miller - Senior Director of Corporate Development, Oshkosh Corporation Oshkosh's venture team adds more than 400 startups a year to its pipeline…
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M&A Integration Reality: Deal Economics vs Human Dynamics with Nicole Markowski
Nicole Markowski - Former Director of Business Integration and Operations, Wipfli Join Nicole as she shares unvarnished truths from managing 30+ transactions…
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Strategic M&A at Scale: Insight Partners' Buyer-Led Approach with Byron Lichtenstein
Byron Lichtenstein, Managing Director at Insight Partners Byron brings over a decade of experience scaling M&A operations across one of the world's leading…
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Think Like a Buyer: Valuation & Deal Structuring with Javier Enrile
Javier Enrile, Managing Director of M&A at TIAA In this episode, he breaks down the art and science of thinking like a strategic buyer—from building…