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Summary: The Roadmap to Success in Postmerger Integration
Review: After your merger or acquisition is completed, the hard work is just beginning. Considerations come at you from all directions, each one important and requiring an immediate decision. Questions such as: Which divisions, if any, will be sold off? How will you value and combine intangible assets? How will your combined companies build shareholder value? The Art of M&A Integration answers all of these questions and hundreds more! This timely and information-packed book delivers input from dozens of executives who have been involved in mergers and acquisitions. They share wisdom based on their successes, their failures, and how they would do things differently if they had a second chance. M&A authority Alexandra Reed Lajoux gets immediately to the point on every minor detail in postmerger strategy. More than theoretical research and details, The Art of M&A Integration brings you the stories of companies both large and small currently involved in the M&A process. Learn the M&A essentials of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX in telecommunications, NationsBank and Boatmen's in banking, Columbia/HCA and HealthTrust Inc. in healthcare, Martin Marietta and Lockheed Martin in aerospace, and many others. Find out what they did, how they did it, and what they wish they had done differently!
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Summary: A comprehensive textbook on a very timely topic
Review: Alex Lajoux cut her professional teeth on this subject, and knows her stuff! Fortunately, she also is a surperb writer, and is able to organize and explain often difficult material in a very readable and clear manner. THE ART OF M&A offers a step-by-step textbook that will prove valuable for anyone contemplating or going through the merger process. The book is logically broken down into appropriate topics (Basic Definitions and Data, Integration Planning and Communication, Integrating Financial and Tangible Resources, etc.) and sub-topics (Preserving Brand Identity after a Merger, Merging Senior Management Teams, etc.) making this a valuable reference book which will become a keeper in any executive library. Read this book before you merge or acquire, and you won't be disappointed. The small investment will save you a fortune in legal fees and headaches later!
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Summary: Before embarking on M&A integration, read this book!
Review: Alex Lajoux, an unusually gifted writer, has done it again. Having worked to make one large and difficult merger - and a host of smaller acquisitions - succeed, I wish her book had been published years ago. Succeeding at post-merger integration is tough. However, this book carefully documents the biggest challenges in aligning systems, operations, and people. Its insights are backed up with plenty of real-world examples and the latest research data available. If more top executives and managers read The Art of M&A Integration, we might very well see more mergers and acquisitions actually create rather than destory shareholder value.
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Summary: A Practical Treasure
Review: Alexandra Lajoux's new book greatly expands on her considerable earlier commentary on M&A activity, focusing on what happens after the knot is tied and the many loose ends that need tending to: employee communications, financial controls, information technology, management misunderstandings, compensation issues, and cultural clashes, to name but a few. Regardless of the amount of thought and planning that may have shaped the prenuptial agreement, the actual merging, or integration, of two corporate entities inevitably brings surprises. One purpose of this comprehensive book is to help the reader to minimize the impact of unforeseen problems. The book is rich with examples of both historically significant and current mergers, yet because of its question-and-answer format is easily accessible and in fact a good read. Ms. Lajoux, having observed and reported on M&A and corporate governance for over twenty years, knows whereof she writes but nonetheless calls on the knowledge of many others as well. The fifty experts in various facets of M&A who contributed in one way or another to this book are identified for the readers' convenience. One measure of the scope of this book is the fact that its index, in fine print, takes up a good dozen pages. In summary, The Art of M&A Integration: A Guide to Merging Resources, Processes, and Responsibilities, is a thorough guided tour through the field and, not incidentally, a giant check list of potential pitfalls and opportunities along the way. I've recommended this book to several friends.
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Summary: A Five Star Guide to Postmerger Performance
Review: As a stockbroker, I watch merger announcements closely. I want to anticipate what will happen after a merger. Will the merger be successful? If so, I am more likely to recommend the stocks to my clients. Or will the merger be a failure? In this case, I recommend selling. I have added The "The Art of M&A Integration" to my library because it addresses important issues affecting postmerger performance. I recommend it to my fellow brokers, and to anyone else who wants to "bet on the winners." A Reader in Washington, D.C.
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Summary: The Art of M&A Integration
Review: Don't waste your time. Purely academic look at M&A integration. Author may have talked to many people, but not enough who've actually been in the trenches doing it.
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Summary: A comprehensive guide in today's market of consolidation
Review: Every acquisition, joint venture or merger presents new and challenging issues in integrating cultures, systems and people. Yet for every unique situation there are always precedents and footprints that when examined can lead to innovative results. As someone in the corporate development arena, it helps to have a comprehensive resource such as this with recent and real case studies to refer to. A great comprehensive guide in dealing with the topic of integrating entities.
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Summary: This is a very useful book to both academy and practice
Review: Fortunately, I find this excellent book on the M&A integration. I have done the research on the M&A synergy for a long time, and find that there are too much facial articles on M&A, but few on M&A synergy or integration because this field is too difficult to make achievement. I am glad to find that this book cover the essence of the M&A and supply worthful ways that based on real-life experience. I believe it can be a guide book to improve M&A level in China. I hope it can be translated into Chinese, so that more executives of chinese company can benefit frome it.
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Summary: Superficial
Review: I found very little useful information in the book because the treatment of the issues is superficial - despite all the footnoted references. At least in one case the information appears to be incorrect - the author states that for a pooling of interests both companies must be publicly-traded (please e-mail me if I am wrong on this issue). I returned the book.
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Summary: Lacking in practical advise for IT managers
Review: In reading the title and on-line reviews of this book, I thought it would be a great resource for me as I have been charged with establishing an IT strategic direction for a post-merger, $1.8 Billion venture. Although I am sure that the writer is knowledgeable on the broader issues facing mergers, I found no practical advise in the 5 pages dedicated to Information Systems. I found the prime considerations facing an IT manager who is faced with replacing systems to be trivial and off the mark. I plan to return this book.
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