19 Dec A tale of two mergers
A nice - and unusual - way to round up the year: two large-scale, highly-prominent 'mergers of equals' are both showing signs of...
Author: Carlos Keener
19 Nov Guess what: M&A is good for you!…?
Another report has been recently published from Intralinks and Cass Business School yet again telling us that actively acquisitive businesses perform better than those that don’t do M&A; you can download it here. As you can probably tell, I’m rather sceptical about such reports, especially...
12 Nov IBN International M&A Conference, Kuala Lumpur, 17-18 November, 2014; ‘Beyond Business School Theories’.
I’m speaking at this conference next week and I’m excited and pleased to be there. It comes as a timely point as BTD continues to expand in the region. Pick up any M&A related press article, blog or news feed and it will tell you that...
12 Nov HR transformation – a more strategic view?
Last week we presented at the HR Transformation, Talent and Employee Engagement Forum in Zurich organised and run by Thought Leader Global. I was there two years ago and from my perspective the discussion then was about matters of a transactional nature; specific HR functions...
31 Jul Woolworths must deliver once DJs ‘soap opera’ ends
PUBLISHED IN THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW, 30 JULY 2014 The “soap opera drama” around the merger between South Africa’s Woolworths and David Jones deal will put pressure on the company to show some fast results, an expert in post merger and acquisition integration says. Carlos Keener, founding...
01 May Co-operative Bank merger with the Britannia Building Society – Eyes wide shut
I’ve been reading Sir Christopher Kelly’s report which is published today on the near collapse of the Co-operative Bank (Co-op) brought about (in part) by the botched takeover of Britannia Building Society. For such a large institution to have made such fundamental and catastrophic errors...
22 Apr Ian Woolsey joins the BTD team to lead expansion in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia
Ian Woolsey, formerly of GlencoreXstrata, has joined BTD as an Associate Director, effective 1 April 2014. With 25 years of experience in IT strategy & organisational change, ERP implementation, and post-acquisition IT integration, Ian brings with him the experiences of a CIO and Integration Director...
16 Apr Sorrell says Publicis / Omnicom’s ‘merger of equals’ is ‘impossible’
Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, has called attempts by rival holding groups, Omnicom Media Group and Publicis Groupe to form a £23 bilion "merger of equals" "impossible". "They talk about this being a merger of equals, which is technically impossible. From an accounting point...
10 Apr The 10 habits of highly effective acquirers: 1 – Resisting Deal Fever
In January 2014 BTD released the results of research into leadership behaviours that influence long-term M&A performance. In the first of this series of comments, we consider the most well-recognised: Deal Fever: "The deal takes on its own dynamic. Negatives are overlooked, and so are any...
04 Apr 6th Merger Integration Management Forum – Amsterdam, March 2014: A welcome note of realism
Late last month I attended the above event run by Thought Leader Global. I have been to quite a few of these and over the years have seen quite a few hot topics raised for a while only to die down as they get...