M&A Science
The Real Work Behind the Close: When Judgment Beats the Checklist
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Show notes
Brent Baxter, Sam Delestienne, Steve Hoffman, John Strenger, and Matt Melsen
"Reputation and trust can make up for a $15 million bid difference." Sam Delestienne of Diploma PLC proved it. He won Peerless Aerospace Fasteners at a five percent discount to the highest bid, after a door blew off an Alaska Airlines jet mid-process.
Recorded live at DealMax, five practitioners walk through the moments when the checklist ran out. ACG CEO Brent Baxter gets a deal closed after the sellers came to blows over valuation. Steve Hoffman of Vensure works through a 14-month carve-out with 125 employees across 22 countries. John Strenger and Matt Melsen take SPS Commerce into its first European deal: documents in Dutch, a works council nobody could confirm, and diligence answers that turned out wrong after close.
Matt Melsen's rule for that handoff: "Decisions made during due diligence need to be executed in PMI." It's why SPS Commerce runs its M&A in DealRoom, so diligence decisions don't get lost on the way to integration. Read how SPS does it: click here.