M&A Negotiation: What Really Matters Beyond Price
The highest offer is not always the best deal. 25 years and 300+ M&A transactions on structure, certainty, control and the psychology of negotiation.
The Leverage Trap: When Debt Creates Value in M&A — and When It Destroys It
Debt amplifies returns — and mistakes. Three real cases (a 1990s LBO, a 20-year recap, a seasonal business) on how much leverage a deal can really bear.
How Value Gets Destroyed in M&A
An anti-guide to selling a company — the mistakes nobody talks about openly.
Most conversations about M&A focus on the upside. How to position. How to negotiate. How to maximize price.
Fine. Important. Necessary.
But after 25 years and 300+ transactions, I’ve come to believe that the more useful conversation is the opposite one.
The Most Underrated Role in M&A
There is a persistent misconception in the world of Mergers and Acquisitions:
That anyone can advise on a deal.
After all, it’s just a transaction, right?
A buyer. A seller. A price. A contract.
How hard can it be?
Creating Heat in the Auction
There is a moment in almost every sale process where the outcome starts to diverge.
The company is the same. The numbers are the same. The buyers are often the same.
And yet, the final result can be radically different.
Should You Sell Your Company Now or Wait?
Should you sell your company now or wait? Why timing a sale isn’t about predicting the market, a real lesson from 2007, and four questions to decide.
The Earn-Out Trap: When Aligning Interests Becomes Creating Conflict
An earn-out doesn’t solve disagreement — it postpones it. When earn-outs align buyer and seller in M&A, when they become a trap, and how to structure one.
Inside the Buyer’s Mind: How Buyers Really Think in M&A
Buyers don’t buy EBITDA — they buy a future and price the risk. How M&A buyers think, who really decides, and why prices drop late in due diligence.
The Day After: Why M&A Value Is Won or Lost After Closing
Signing the SPA doesn’t create value — integration does. Governance, culture, synergies, the founder and the first 100 days after closing an M&A deal.
Only Fools Confuse Value and Price
The quote is often attributed to different people—sometimes to Francisco de Quevedo, sometimes to Antonio Machado—and it’s the kind of line you could easily imagine Warren Buffett saying. But attribution aside, the idea is what matters.
