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Due Diligence: The Critical Stage in Mergers and Acquisitions
How can you be sure you are buying the company you think you are? Are you sure it is as good as the seller says? How can you be certain unexpected costs and obligations will not suddenly appear once you are the owner and responsible for them? How best can you arm yourself for the negotiations? Have you worked out precisely what you are going to do with it once it is yours? How do you set the priorities for change to recoup the premium you have paid for it? The answer to all these questions, and many more, lies with effective due diligence. Due diligence is one of the most important but least well understood aspects of the acquisition process. It is not, as many believe, a chore to be left to the accountants and lawyers. To get the best from it, due diligence has to be properly planned and professionally managed. This book is a comprehensive manual on getting due diligence right. It is a uniquely comprehensive guide, covering all aspects of the process from financial, legal and commercial due diligence right through to environmental and intellectual property due diligence. There are also useful chapters on working with advisers and managing due diligence projects. It also includes a number of checklists to help ensure that the right questions are asked.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 17, 2019
Read this book to get a quick refresher and also to allow me to structure my knowledge on Due Diligence. I achieved both objectives. Not bad!
The book is a good guidance on the subject and makes you think through different lenses/areas of expertise the basics of this important and more often than not difficult phase of every M&A project.
It provides you practical watch-outs and leads you through the main areas of a Due Diligence and presents the main objectives, activities that should be undertaken & discloses the main risks and concerns.
For the areas where you are not an expert, it brings awareness of what you should expect and allows you to have an educated conversion with the subject matter expert on the required deliverables.
The check lists presented are a good tool, nonetheless the main one on appendix A should have been organized by area and not has it was disclosed (it seems randomly made).
Finally, i think what is called Commercial Due Diligence should have been named Strategic Due Diligence and the area of Risk is clearly lacking inputs and it's significantly below the other chapters of the books.
ps - due to the author nationality, the subjects presented are clearly skewed from an UK perspective, but that does not undermines the quality and insights conveyed.
The book is a good guidance on the subject and makes you think through different lenses/areas of expertise the basics of this important and more often than not difficult phase of every M&A project.
It provides you practical watch-outs and leads you through the main areas of a Due Diligence and presents the main objectives, activities that should be undertaken & discloses the main risks and concerns.
For the areas where you are not an expert, it brings awareness of what you should expect and allows you to have an educated conversion with the subject matter expert on the required deliverables.
The check lists presented are a good tool, nonetheless the main one on appendix A should have been organized by area and not has it was disclosed (it seems randomly made).
Finally, i think what is called Commercial Due Diligence should have been named Strategic Due Diligence and the area of Risk is clearly lacking inputs and it's significantly below the other chapters of the books.
ps - due to the author nationality, the subjects presented are clearly skewed from an UK perspective, but that does not undermines the quality and insights conveyed.
Displaying 1 of 1 review