... more value for customers. After many studies of the last four decades of mergers, it’s well known that the results are wide ranging, with big winners and big losers. Shareholder value M&A Due diligence Synergies Culture and change High-level assumptions for revenue growth or margin...

... situations that no amount of time, money or effort can save; obvious winners that will revive as the current credit freeze thaws; and problematical situations that require a careful due diligence process to sort the lackluster survivors from those businesses that will best respond to skilled turnaround...

.... Originality/value The value is to alert managers considering related mergers to some potential landmines and what to do about them. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited 2007 Acquisitions and mergers Due diligence Integration The belief in potential synergy by merger adherents has...

...Jeffery S. Perry; Thomas J. Herd Making an M&A deal “work” is one of the hardest tasks in business. A handful of best practices can reduce the risk and give the deal a fighting chance. The inherent danger in due diligence is not that companies fail to do it, but that they fail to do it well...