M&A Science
M&A Roll-Up Playbook: How Zayo Did 45 Acquisitions and Sold for $14B | Dan Caruso (Part 1)
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Dan Caruso, Managing Director, Caruso Ventures; Founding CEO of Zayo Group
About $1 billion of equity went into Zayo across roughly 45 deals. When it sold, that equity was worth $8.5 billion, at a middle-of-the-road 12 times EBITDA. Dan Caruso calls that authentic value creation, and he watched the other kind in the WorldCom era.
In Part 1, Dan breaks down the Zayo thesis: "fiber orphans" run by "accidental owners" that no banker was calling. He explains why about 80% of his deals were proprietary, how a fully financed offer in a sealed envelope won AboveNet, and why boards that track each acquisition separately end up delaying the synergies they paid for.
Then there's his integration rule: "We are not going to debate it for six months. We have already made that decision."
Dan's refusal to spend months debating whose system wins is the problem DealRoom Integration was built for. Turn diligence findings into an integration plan before close, and carry workstreams, owners, and synergy targets into Day 1, so the next deal isn't stuck waiting on the last one. See how it works: click here.