Mergers and Acquisitions |  | Hello and welcome to Thompson Dunn's third email newsletter.
Firstly you may have noticed that we have changed! Some of you will have come and seen our new premises in London or looked at our new website.
We have re-branded. |
Much time, thought and energy has gone into our transition from “Psychology in Management’ to ‘Your Clear Way Forward’, and from the jigsaw piece to the fluid infinity symbol – a transition that has made us look closely at ourselves and what our role is in today’s business world. We hope that the ideas of connection, joint discovery and exploration, and openness may be conveyed through this new look, and further focus our desire for excellence for ourselves and for all our clients.
Difficult transition is a central theme within the subject of this newsletter. Mergers and Acquisitions have enormous implications upon companies, teams and individuals. and many of you reading this newsletter with be feeling the effects directly. Some of you may be energised by a new and exciting environment, some of you may be feeling isolated or uncertain of the future. Some of you will be findings its impact very painful.Thompson Dunn are now offering a new service to those of you who are undertaking M&A work. Evidence suggests people issues should be considered pre-merger at the same time as strategic planning, with work beginning as soon as possible. To that end please see article "A New Way to do Business?" and if you would like to receive our M&A presentation please contact us at info@thompsondunn.com Thank you to those of you who have contributed to this newsletter and shared your thoughts and experiences. Some of your have felt that your contributions to our ‘Change’ newsletter last year have already said what you would like to share on M&A. Others may have found that accounts of ongoing M&A work and its effects difficult to share. We have included articles ourselves that we feel of relevance and hope they serve to draw out some themes that might prove to be helpful and of interest. Pat
| | A New Way to do Business? | | Much has been written about the frailties of the M&A process. Companies overlooking human capital concerns and failing to account for them in the deal price. Commentary from economic and HR journals, broadsheets and magazines paint a dark picture, of inherent weaknesses in assuming that you can simply ‘bolt on’ acquisitions to an existing company and expect ‘the whole’ to all run smoothly. Not so, as we have seen time and time again. For the full article click here
| | New Brand, New Uniform | | For years we had been threatened with a bogey man. “If we don’t do our job well enough, we’ll get taken over by the German Post Office”. The threat was taken somewhat half-heartedly: we couldn’t imagine ourselves in postmen’s uniform. When the day arrived that our senior management announced that, indeed, we were now a division of the “Deutschepost”, we wondered what we had done so wrong, and how soon the new uniforms would be arriving. For the full article click here
| | M & A | To employees, M&A actually stands for either “Misery & Angst or “Move and Avoid”.
Let me say now, this cynicism of the M&A process does not happen by accident, cynicism is indeed a failure of management. And it takes the right conditions to grow and prosper. And it also takes time.For the full article click here
| | Ingredients of a Successful Merger | A transparent, clearly communicated plan on the day of the merger/ acquisition announcement, timing is critical, detailing Who, What, When and How (hopefully for obvious reasons).
Clearly define if it is a merger or an acquisition, they are not the same and trying to pretend otherwise is silly.
Prior to communicating anything, identify and protect ‘key knowledge’ holders, whose retention is critical to the business success of the new company.For the full article click here
| | Emotional Responses in M & A | | Much has been written recently in the financial press and various business school publications on what makes a merger or acquisition a success or failure. One of the most striking things however, seems to be the lack of attention paid to the emotional reactions of individuals, groups and indeed whole corporations to this process, which is now almost an every day occurrence. For the full article click here
| | Arranged Marriage | | Mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, reverse acquisitions etc… Do not mind the long list of terms, they are all labels for one real term – an arranged marriage. Earlier on this year my English friend told me that our common friend, an Indian, is living in an arranged marriage. “Yeah, I replied, he looks pretty happy to me. And, by the way, what is wrong about arranged marriages in the first place?” For the full article click here
| | What makes a Successful Merger? | | Statistics indicate that approximately half of all mergers are successful, but why not the rest? The process starts with detailed analysis and valuation of the acquired organisation(s) and high expectations of increased productivity, share value, profit, and eliminating potentially redundant tasks. For the full article click here
| | What Psychology can tell us about Mergers & Acquisitions | | Merger activity is rife at present. One cannot pick up a Financial Times without reading speculation about who is the next possible target. The effects are being felt far and wide, with sectors as diverse as technology, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications all experiencing an upturn in M&A activity. The trend looks set to continue, with the value of global M&A reaching $912bn in the first quarter of 2006, up by 35% on the same period last year. For the full article click here |
| Nothing Personal
there’s nothing personal
but you see
we have to earn our customer’s fee
to squeeze and merge you folks you know
so these two companies can be one, and flow
there’s nothing personal
but you need to know
that you are one of those to go
Sorry we are
but alas you know
there’s nothing personal
take your cheque and go
 A New Way to do Business 
New Brand, New Uniform 
Ingredients of a Successful Merger 
Emotional Responses in M & A |
