The Technology M&A Guidebook [Hardcover]

Ed Paulson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2001 | Series: Wiley Mergers and Acquisitions Library (Book 3)

The comprehensive, practical guide to buying, selling, and merging technology companies

The Technology M&A Guidebook provides executives and entrepreneurs interested in acquiring or selling a technology company with everything they need to know about the entire M&A process, from identifying target companies or buyers to financial analysis, due diligence, tax issues, valuation, and legal considerations.

This book explores specific issues that are unique to technology M&A: assessing the impact of technology sector high-change rates; market-driven product development; company culture issues; engineers as managers and managers as engineers; consumer and technical product differences; technology marketing issues; intellectual property considerations; Internet interaction; and more. It also provides detailed analyses of factors involved in acquiring companies from different sectors, including:
* Semiconductor equipment and chip manufacturers
* PC/workstation and related hardware companies
* Software businesses
* Data networking and telecommunications firms
* Internet-related companies


Don't enter the M&A process unprepared. Let The Technology M&A Guidebook help you beat the odds and make your sale or acquisition a complete success.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Like any major business transaction, the M&A process is fraught with uncertainty, risk, and the unpredictable influence of personalities–and it favors those who come prepared.

The Technology M&A Guidebook offers comprehensive preparation for anyone involved in, or considering, the purchase, sale, or merger of a technology company. It covers every stage of the M&A process from arriving at the decision to buy or sell a company to handling the critically important postacquisition environment.

This book reveals techniques for identifying companies worth buying; introduces the different types of deals and explains how they are funded; and discusses the strategic synergy and transaction structures that can make the new entity stronger than either of its component companies. Other important topics include:

• Performing a detailed financial evaluation
• Determining the right price
• Special accounting and tax considerations
• Detailed marketing and sales evaluation
• Special technology marketing considerations
• Legal and contract considerations
• Due diligence management techniques
• Special technology segment influences

The Technology M&A Guidebook provides step-by-step instructions for performing due diligence and reviews all of the factors that should be weighed before making a final buy/sell decision.

Complete with formulas and valuation evidence and examples, this book provides both the technical expertise and the sound negotiating advice that will make every stage of the M&A process go smoothly, helping both buyers and sellers protect their interests, make the best deal possible, close the deal without a hitch, and ensure post- transaction success.

From the Back Cover

The comprehensive, practical guide to buying, selling, and merging technology companies

The Technology M&A Guidebook provides executives and entrepreneurs interested in acquiring or selling a technology company with everything they need to know about the entire M&A process, from identifying target companies or buyers to financial analysis, due diligence, tax issues, valuation, and legal considerations.

This book explores specific issues that are unique to technology M&A: assessing the impact of technology sector high-change rates; market-driven product development; company culture issues; engineers as managers and managers as engineers; consumer and technical product differences; technology marketing issues; intellectual property considerations; Internet interaction; and more. It also provides detailed analyses of factors involved in acquiring companies from different sectors, including:

• Semiconductor equipment and chip manufacturers
• PC/workstation and related hardware companies
• Software businesses
• Data networking and telecommunications firms
• Internet-related companies

Don’t enter the M&A process unprepared. Let The Technology M&A Guidebook help you beat the odds and make your sale or acquisition a complete success.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 420 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (January 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471360104
• ISBN-13: 978-0471360100
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,500,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have a personal mission - to improve business and personal lives. Concepts are useful and powerful but only as they can be applied to improve the quality of life. My most basic talent is the ability to simplify the complicated so that it becomes useful to people (especially my readers) in their everyday life. My advanced technology and business management education (too many degrees according to my family and friends) combined with years of practical experience (yes - gray hair is involved) in a wide variety of fields enable me to speak science, technology, finance, entrepreneurship, management, engineering, sales and marketing "geek" (partial listing) while always trying to answer the question, "Why would anyone care about this?"

As a college professor, I learn from my students about new ways to explain things. As a writer I learn from other authors about ways to improve my craft (watch for fiction some time in the future). As a person, I am insatiably curious - learning every chance I can. And I really cannot control where that curiosity will lead me. Insatiable curiosity tied in with a focus challenge is sort of like that. :-)

It is my honor to serve my readers, clients, students, colleagues and friends in the successful pursuit of their own best lives. I promise to keep reinventing myself and hope that you occasionally invite me into your life along the way.

My latest book (coming in early 2012) is the Sixth Edition of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting Your Own Busness" which in prior editions has sold over 250,000 copies. This edition has been substantially revised to address the questions that readers have told me they need to answer today. Feedback from prior readers who have started their own succcessful businesses let me know if I am on the right track in my mission. I hope to hear from you.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bottom-up veiw of M&A work., February 19, 2008

By 

Lu Phillips (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Technology M&A Guidebook (Hardcover)

This book solved a problem that I could not figure out from the other books on the shelf or with disjointed web searching: building a tech-oriented merger strategy from the bottom-up. As an engineer-turned-business person I rejected dozens of other books because, while the high finance cannot be ignored, backing into it from a solid operational approach gives a vitally fresh perspective in the boardroom. Blue collar grounding of fundamentals like production risk, buzz among talkative engineers, customer feedback close to the source, R&D projects that should be killed, etc are a few of the key aspects of non-financial due diligence. Not insignificantly, teams at the target company will actually talk with people who are not boardroom bred. In the 6 integrations I have run, the more successful ones are overwhelmingly Ops driven to the constant surprise of the finance guys. This well-written book really helps to remove the usual blinders.

This book is also a gem when viewed from other vantage points. For example, I built a safety-critical software industry overview patterned on the excellent software industry assessment in the book. Now canvassing this niche industry globally is vastly simpler and more strategically relevant from the first call onward. My team owns the thinking and resulting models, but the inspiration is all from Messrs. Paulson and Huber.

M&A is certainly a complex subject. With this book you stand a chance to lead the boardroom discussion grounded whereas the MBA's are all executing the same playbook consisting of spreadsheets and analyst reports.