Before a Merger, Consider Company Cultures Along with Financials

A normal acquisition process seeks to ensure something basic: a strategic rationale for a deal, supported by a thoughtful selection process, with known risks identified by a short, intense due diligence. But what isn’t practiced, and too often ignored, is the process of asking: “What are the likely challenges we will face as we integrate these two complex companies over the next 1-2 years?” My experience, after being involved in considerable numbers of such transactions over the past decade, is that in the majority of cases little due diligence is done beyond the financials to investigate the challenges of having two organizations become one. Management is usually shocked to find the degree of differences that exist between their two, soon to be merged, organizations — and too few actively