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, divestitures, and more. With over 300 episodes, this podcast is the premier thought leadership resource designed to streamline your deal-making process. Start listening today and visit mascience.com/podcast to access over 300 episodes. Brought to you by DealRoom, the leading M&A optimization platform used by the best M&A teams around the world

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Episodes

Balancing Legal and Business Concerns in M&A Transactions

“Are you doing things that could be perceived negatively that would create a higher bar for that next acquisition? Those things can come back and haunt you” Scott Hile is an M&A professional with two decades of experience. He also teaches Entrepreneurial Law and Global Business Transactions in Clemson University’s MBA Program. 0:00 - 5:05 Prioritizing investment and legal concerns during due diligence 5:00 - 8:40 Focusing on value drivers 8:40 - 10:50 Presenting risks to sellers 11:55 - 15:35 Le...

Dec 11, 2017•42 min•Ep. 10

How Empathy Makes Mergers and Acquisitions Successful

“This is the first time I’ve been acquired by a company that felt like it had a soul.” That’s what John Derusso was told after leading an integration. John is the Director of Corporate Development Integration with Cisco Systems and has been for the past four years. 0:00-0:10 John’s background with Cisco and supply chain 0:13-2:12 Successful acquisitions 2:12-6:42 Retaining people 6:42-9:36 Big picture view of integration 9:36-13:30 Excitement and adrenaline in integration (step-by-step process) ...

Sep 15, 2017•56 min•Ep. 4

How You Survive an Unprofitable Business

Sean Peace has a captivating story to tell about selling and exiting an unprofitable business in a unique niche: a fintech startup dealing with entertainment in the Southeast. In 2013, he founded Royalty Exchange, an auction marketplace selling music royalty streams as memorabilia to the highest bidding fans. After two years and $100K in revenue, the company landed $2 million in venture capital financing to accelerate their growth – or so they thought. 0:20 – 2:22 Background on SongVest leading ...

Sep 15, 2017•29 min•Ep. 9

How to Choose an M&A Advisor

As former VP at Huron Capital, Mark Miller is very familiar with the start-to-finish private equity process. He’s responsible for transaction teams involved in all aspects of deal sourcing, execution, and portfolio management. Mark has a wealth of experience executing deals on the buy side – managing due diligence, negotiating legal documents, setting the ultimate capital structure, and lining up financial documentation. 0:00 – 2:18 Summary of Mark’s background 2:19 – 5:18 Worse thing that could...

Sep 15, 2017•55 min•Ep. 8

How Synergies Differ in M&A

As a professional with 29 years’ experience in M&A corporate development, financial operations, and management, Paul Tennola, CFO of Paynet, is an expert when it comes to M&A. In addition to his experience with Paynet, Paul has worked with TransUnion, Wolters Kluwer, and SunGard. He has looked at over 1000 companies, successfully leading and closing more than 50 transactions. He believes M&A is a great way to augment growth. 0:00-1:10 Paul’s experience with Paynet, TransUnion, Wolters Kluwer, an...

Sep 15, 2017•47 min•Ep. 7

Sell Side M&A Advice

In 2005, Vamsi started his own company focused on data compliance for the pharmaceutical industry. His company provided technology to support clinical trials to the FDA. “I like to build companies, but I also like change. [After five years], I thought about selling the company and rolling it up into a publicly listed company.” He sold it in 2010 and moved to India to pursue new opportunities. While the sale was smooth, there were numerous post-sale challenges. “They basically ran down the compan...

Sep 15, 2017•26 min•Ep. 6

Key Private Equity Criteria for Prosperous M&A

Greg DellaFranco is currently a Senior Manager of Corporate Development at Deloitte Consulting. Prior to joining Deloitte, he served as Director of Corporate Development at KPMG. When combined with 16 years in corporate development, corporate strategy, new venture creation, and alliance roles at Accenture, Greg has valuable M&A insight to share. 0:48 – 1:43 Greg’s background in corporate development 1:44 – 4:08 Differences in perspective between corp dev and private equity 3:21 – 6:13 Value prop...

Sep 15, 2017•39 min•Ep. 5

Why Decisive Communication is Vital for a Successful Integration

Jeremie originally started his career at Goldman Sachs and spent time in investment banking focused on equities, equity sales, and trading. He has experience on both sides of M&A, as an acquirer and “acquiree,” and says the deals he has seen in the past 10 years – some successful, others not – have changed his perspective on M&A. 0:00 – 2:12 Jeremie’s background in SaaS and investment banking 2:13 – 5:52 The value of focusing on giving in M&A transactions 5:53 – 11:40 Importance of pre-diligence...

Mar 23, 2017•56 min•Ep. 3

How Strong Relationships Lead to Successful M&A

In this interview, we touch on a range of topics from how Scott handles hurdles to post-closing surprises, deal disasters to integration management, and ultimately, the keys to running a successful process. 00:00 - 00:40 Intro 00:40 - 04:25 Scott’s corporate development background 04:25 - 06:36 Small vs large transactions 06:36 - 12:25 Diligence lessons learned 12:25 - 17:55 Walking away from deals 17:55 - 19:53 Post closing surprises 19:53 - 25:08 Bad deals 25:08 - 32:08 Post merger integration...

Feb 07, 2017•38 min•Ep. 2

The Importance of Conducting a Quality of Earnings in M&A

Andrew Jordan is a Principal at Riveron Consulting where he provides transaction advisory services. He’s had his hand in mergers and acquisitions for the last 8 years and has incredible insight regarding quality of earnings (Q of E) and M&A deals. Show Notes: 0:00 – 0:47 Summary of Andrew’s background 0:48 – 5:44 Advantages to sellers doing Quality of Earnings (Q of E) analysis 5:45 – 6:51 When to get buyers involved in process 6:52 – 9:51 Biggest challenge from financial accounting due diligenc...

Feb 01, 2017•33 min•Ep. 1

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