M&A STORIES - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
99 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 months ago -These M&A War Stories podcasts are for anyone engaged in M&A or Divestment activity. Every week your hosts Robert Heaton & Toby Tester, along with special podcast guests, will draw on their past M&A experience through case studies and what hopefully will prove to be interesting stories. By chipping in with our own thoughts and experiences our aim is that all of us professionally involved in M&A – CEOs, CFOs, Executives, Consultants and Advisors, get that little bit better next time round.
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Episodes
HIGH SPEED AI vs CUMBERSOME LEGAL, REGULATORY AND ETHICAL DEVELOPMENTS
February 12, 2024 00:00 - 32 minutes - 22.1 MBIn recent weeks Rob and Toby have veered slightly off the M&A topic to explore the emerging world of AI and how it might shake up M&A as we know it. In doing that we've arrived at the challenges of adopting adequate regulatory and ethical controls for AI and never mind the slow cumbersome legal system and how that might cope with AI. The key point is that AI needs global standards for regulation, ethics and legal controls and anyone with a degree of experience knows how difficult that migh...
THE URGENCY FOR ETHICAL AND REGULATORY CONTROLS ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
January 25, 2024 05:00 - 29 minutes - 20.5 MBRobert and Toby have been clamping at the bit to start talking about the need for strong ethics, regulatory and legal instruments to manage and control the global adoption of AI. There's no doubt about it. AI has the equal potential to cause untold harm, and the scandal playing out with the UK Post Office is a stark reminder of how ethics can be completely railroaded. That is why it must be developed ethically. And that's what we're going to go into the next podcast. But today, we've been t...
WILL THERE BE AN AI DRIVEN M&A WAVE - SOONER OR LATER?
January 18, 2024 01:00 - 31 minutes - 21.5 MBThis week, the Dynamic Duo of Robert and Toby ponder on whether AI will drive a new wave of AI-influenced M&A transactions - or not. Certainly, 2023 has seen a 40% downturn in M&A volume globally so what evidence is there that AI will offer a stimulus and create a new wave of transactions? It's not a simple question to answer because AI is still in its infancy, but adoption is accelerating at an alarming pace whilst regulation and legal controls are somewhat lagging and undeveloped. The ...
WHAT ROLE SHOULD AI PLAY IN THE M&A PROCESS
January 08, 2024 03:00 - 29 minutes - 20.3 MBRobert and Toby continue to delve into the topic of AI and in this episode, we start to examine how AI is or will impact each of the typical M&A processes. As the duo walk through the process from Deal Sourcing to Due Diligence and then into Legal Contracts and Valuation it becomes clear that AI is already playing a strong role in some aspects of M&A. But equally, there are other areas where AI might play a supporting role, where the need for human intervention is still prominent in what Tob...
TRYING TO DEFINE AI IN ALL ITS GUISES - THREAT OR BENEFIT - OPTIMISM OR WORRY
November 17, 2023 00:00 - 25 minutes - 17.9 MBIn the last episode, the dynamic duo (Rob and Toby) started to talk about the emergence of AI, and this week, we continued the conversation to try and put some definition to AI. And we also tried (but failed) to stay grounded and not get dragged into the stratosphere around AI. Anyway, this week's podcast was more serious than others as we sub-categorised AI into Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Narrow AI, General AI and Super AI; and that's probably just touching the surface. We also tri...
M&A TOOLS - ARE WE ABOUT TO EXPERIENCE A MASSIVE LEAP FORWARD?
November 07, 2023 04:00 - 25 minutes - 17.8 MBRobert and Toby often get together like old men on a park bench, to discuss a variety of topics. Some of them become podcasts, others don't. And sometimes one topic sparks a discussion on something different. That was the case recently when the dynamic duo was trying to get their heads around AI and what impact it is/will have on the world of M&A. It was from that discussion we asked ourselves what tools are currently used to manage M&A transactions and we concluded that the technology is ...
M&A PIRATES AND BURIED TREASURE
November 01, 2023 09:00 - 25 minutes - 17.8 MBThere is one certainty in life and that is if you choose any metaphor, Toby Tester can link it to M&A, and he doesn't even blink. In today's podcast, Toby manages to draw a distinction between the behavioral characteristics of pirates of old and those of several modern-day corporate heavyweights such as Rupert Murdoch, Elon Musk, and Lord Hansen. Toby's view is that just like pirates of old, modern-day pirates possess a number of valuable behavioral traits i.e Dare to think like a pirate ...
IN THE BEGINNING - WHERE DID M&A START?
October 24, 2023 06:00 - 27 minutes - 19.2 MBTo start with a tongue in cheek disclaimer: If we've offended any Corporate Lawyers or Investment Bankers in the recording of this podcast, we did so with gusto and enjoyed having a dig at your expense :-) But enough of that. When and where did the term M&A originate? We use the term M&A freely as part of everyday language, but when and where did it all start. Our dastardly duo jump into their time machine and head back to 1602 when the Dutch India Company was formed and became the first t...
They're Back! THE DEADLY DUE HAVE RETURNED FROM THEIR ENFORCED HIATUS
October 15, 2023 01:00 - 16 minutes - 11.5 MBJust when you thought it was safe. Just when enough time had elapsed that you thought the future was safe and secure - - - THEY'RE BACK! Yes, after a hiatus of 12 months, the deadly duo of Robert Heaton and Toby Tester have returned to their popular podcast with even more M&A Stories. Today's episode is just an introduction to give you a flavour of what we will talk about. As always, our intention is to share our experiences, provoke thought and conversation and help other practitioners who...
THE TOP FIVE POST DEAL QUESTIONS FOR ANY CEO
February 03, 2023 03:00 - 21 minutes - 14.7 MBIt's the first podcast for 2023 from your hosts Rob and Toby and in this episode, Toby focuses on the top 5 post-close questions a CEO needs to ask on any deal. But before we start let's put the CEO's task into perspective. He's just spent the best part of last year focused on the deal, the constant back-and-forth conversations, the massive efforts around due diligence, the stress of negotiating the final deal value, and then the task of ensuring that all the legalities are properly manage...
LOOKING BACK ON SOME OF THE MOST DISASTROUS M&A TRANSACTIONS
January 02, 2023 07:00 - 25 minutes - 17.6 MBWell, this podcast was recorded in late November 2022, but a quick hospital visit so Rob could undergo full knee replacement surgery meant that we didn't publish until early January 2023. Still, knee surgery was successful, so here goes. And to help you navigate this episode, we refer to past episodes where we unpack some seriously disastrous M&A transactions, so if you want to know more about the detail of each of our 'top 5' then you'll find the links here Twitter HP and Autonomy Da...
MORE INSIGHTS FROM PTS CONSULTING. YOU HAVE TO BE A CONTRIBUTOR TO THE DEAL STRATEGY IF YOU WANT TO ADD VALUE
November 22, 2022 23:00 - 38 minutes - 26.6 MBIn this 2nd episode with PTS Consulting, we pick up with Barry Lewington and Hugh Van Wijk where we left off. but take time to delve deeper into some of the critical success factors in managing technology transition or transformation during M&A. Seasoned M&A professionals won't be surprised the hear that technology itself isn't the most important element. In fact it doesn't appear on Barry and Hugh's top four recommendations Be involved from the beginning and make sure you have an advisors...
A CONVERSATION WITH PTS CONSULTING FOCUSING ON TECHNOLOGY IN M&A
November 18, 2022 20:00 - 35 minutes - 24.3 MBIn today's episode, I'm joined by Barry Lewington and Hugh Van Wijk from PTS Australia to talk about their experiences in managing the technology integration (or separation) aspects of M&A. We will be recording more podcasts with PTS in the future but from today's episode, there are several takeaways from our conversation. Technology integration can be a large part of any M&A integration and in most cases, it can be complex and involve many moving parts. The technology per se is a small ...
SHOULD YOU INTEGRATE OR INFUSE YOUR M&A DEAL? THERE ARE ARGUMENTS FOR BOTH
November 15, 2022 03:00 - 28 minutes - 19.3 MBIn today's episode, Rob and Toby continue the conversation about 'infusion', the art of purposely planning the deal as a value-add exercise and being committed to adjusting your operating model to 'infuse' the best of both sides. Rob and Toby kick off by proposing that traditional integration is what we refer to as 'scale deals' ie: bolting two entities together so the end result is more efficient, but principally a larger version of the two originating parts. Scope deals on the other ha...
THE ART OF ENGINEERED INFUSION
October 23, 2022 04:00 - 28 minutes - 19.8 MBWell, Toby's back from his quest to conquer Spain and Malta, and he's fresh with renewed enthusiasm. So much so that he has invoked Alice in Wonderland and Alice's conversation with the Cheshire Cat to demonstrate his thought processes. I'll let you, the listener find that delightful snippet. In this episode, Rob and Toby revisit a familiar theme that proposes that the outcome of any M&A deal must be greater than the sum of the two individual parts. We start by looking at traditional M&A in...
THE CULTURAL PROMISE IN M&A WITH GUEST ANIRVAN SEN
October 06, 2022 00:00 - 37 minutes - 25.4 MBWith Toby on vacation in Europe, I've had the opportunity to bring in a guest to the podcast, and I'm delighted that fellow M&A professional Anirvan Sen has joined me to talk about his experiences managing cultural change in M&A environments. In today's podcast, we unpack our thoughts that culture is a leadership responsibility and that it is the culmination of many different aspects that make up corporate culture. Everything from rewards and recognition, communication style (internal and e...
TOBY'S JOURNEY FROM MBA TO M&A - HIGHLIGHTS OF AN ENJOYABLE CAREER
August 30, 2022 23:00 - 33 minutes - 22.9 MBIn the last episode, we delved into Rob's background and how he got started in M&A. The tables have been turned, and it's Toby's turn to wallow under the spotlight. We learn quickly that Toby's first M&A experience was after joining a Financial Services business and leveraging his project management expertise. And he realized this was something he enjoyed doing because it allowed him to utilize his skills and expertise across the whole of the business. As Toby puts it, he became bilingual...
BEING IN THE WRONG PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME - HOW ROB GOT STARTED IN M&A
August 22, 2022 06:00 - 29 minutes - 20 MBThe dynamic duo aka Rob and Toby have spent many episodes talking about their respective M&A experiences, but we've never talked about how it all started. Rob is slightly embarrassed about opening the kimono, but as he explains in this episode, it started with his ability to regularly be in the wrong place at the right time. By that, Rob means that he was often asked to pick up 'special' projects and didn't know how to say No. But if you listen to this episode, you'll quickly understand th...
EXPLORING VALUE CREATION - INNOVATION VERSUS THE BLEEDING OBVIOUS
August 01, 2022 02:00 - 31 minutes - 21.9 MBSo in today's episode, Robert and Toby continue their conversation around value creation in M&A, but this time taking a more philosophical approach to the factors that impact the desire to go after value that is beyond what Rob defines as the 'bleeding obvious' By 'bleeding obvious' Rob is alluding to the usual synergies, cost reductions, and efficiencies that result from typical M&A deals, and whilst achieving these can be stressful on the organization, the pathway is based on proven metho...
THREE PHASES OF VALUE IN M&A - PROTECTION - CREATION - INNOVATION
July 12, 2022 07:00 - 30 minutes - 21 MBYou might recall in the last podcast, that Robert and Toby got on a roll in talking about value creation during post-M&A integration so you won't be surprised that this is the topic for today's podcast. The Dastardly Duo hold firm to their belief that insufficient attention is paid to real value opportunities beyond what Rob describes as the 'bleeding obvious' And you'll hear Toby berate Rob for not respecting the huge amount of work that goes into identifying value opportunities. But I di...
TOBY'S PHILOSOPHICAL RANT - DON'T JUST SPREADSHEET IT - ENGINEER IT
June 07, 2022 04:00 - 31 minutes - 21.3 MBJust occasionally, Rob and Toby get into the groove and thoroughly enjoy their chosen 'topic de jour' and today was one of those events. The dynamic duo decided it was time to explore the principle of creative value during M&A. And what do we mean by that? Well, a lot of post-deal value creation is what Rob calls the 'Bleeding Obvious' and what Toby prefers to call Combinational Synergy Value (he's always had a way with words, that lad) It's the value derived by spreadsheet jockeys mulling...
ROB AND TOBY GET EMOTIONAL
May 26, 2022 05:00 - 30 minutes - 21.1 MBIn today's podcast, Rob and Toby start to discuss the impact that positive and negative emotions can have on the success of any M&A integration. And to be clear, we are not talking about the bigger picture of 'culture' although that does have some bearing on the topic. What we are talking about are those situations where emotions such as fear, envy, anger, frustration (clearly all negative) and elation, enthusiasm, comfort, and certainty (positive) start to appear in both individuals and g...
ELON MUSK AND TWITTER - ARE WE ABOUT TO SEE A WIKI TWEET?
May 18, 2022 04:00 - 26 minutes - 18.5 MBIn today's episode, Rob and Toby attempt to make sense of Elon Musk's $44Bn acquisition of Twitter. Attempt is the operative word here because only Elon musk knows why he's doing this so all Rob and Toby can do is offer some thoughts and speculation. What we do agree on is that this isn't just a pure social crusade by any stretch and there is most likely a business model in Elon's head that he thinks can monetize Twitter. And one of the thoughts that we offer is maybe Musk has a 2 step app...
DO YOU WANT A SPAC?
May 03, 2022 03:00 - 22 minutes - 15.6 MBWhen Toby first raised this as a podcast topic, I was immediately taken back to a phrase that my mother would use when I'd misbehaved, but it turns out Toby was talking about something completely different. What Toby was talking about was an alternative investment vehicle for targeted acquisition(s). According to Dr. Google, A SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) is a company that has no commercial operations and is formed strictly to raise capital through an initial public offering ...
THE NOTION OF FRAUD AND ITS IMPACT IN EVERYDAY M&A DEALS
April 17, 2022 04:00 - 28 minutes - 19.3 MBIn recent episodes, Rob and Toby have started to look at M&A fraud and certainly, the HP Autonomy deal was on a massive scale, as was Theranos. And here in Australia, we are just starting to unravel the Ponzi scheme of Melissa Craddick. But those are all massive frauds that captured almost global attention. But what about the risk of uncovering fraud in everyday M&A? And maybe it's not fraud in the strict sense but more likely dodgy practices, knowing turning a blind eye, engrained reven...
THERANOS - THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES
March 23, 2022 21:00 - 23 minutes - 16.3 MBIf you listened to the press this past year you must have heard snippets about Elizabeth Holmes, the young, attractive and charismatic CEO of Theranos, and how she fleeced rich and savvy people out of almost a billion dollars. It's a topic that Rob and Toby have been mulling over recently and particularly wondering just where in the journey did Elizabeth turn to fraudulent claims and did she do so knowingly? From what we know, she started out with a genuine vision/dream to disrupt the bloo...
REVISITING HP'S DISASTROUS ACQUISITION OF AUTONOMY
March 01, 2022 07:00 - 22 minutes - 15.5 MBYou might remember in a previous podcast towards the end of 2021, that Robert and Toby discussed HP's disastrous acquisition of Autonomy and the huge accounting scandal that unfolded. Well, the reality is that repercussions are still being felt more than 10 years later and there are criminal prosecutions that have resulted in a jail term for the CFO. Added to that, a recently approved application should see Autonomy founder Mike Lynch extradited to face charges in the US. He's fighting th...
REVISITING HP'S DISASTROUS ACQUISITION OF AUTONOMY
March 01, 2022 07:00 - 22 minutes - 15.5 MBYou might remember in a previous podcast towards the end of 2021, that Robert and Toby discussed HP's disastrous acquisition of Autonomy and the huge accounting scandal that unfolded. Well, the reality is that repercussions are still being felt more than 10 years later and there are criminal prosecutions that have resulted in a jail term for the CFO. Added to that, a recently approved application should see Autonomy founder Mike Lynch extradited to face charges in the US. He's fighting th...
THE STRANGE COMPLEXITIES OF AN M&A INTEGRATION MANAGER
February 13, 2022 00:00 - 32 minutes - 22.5 MBTHE DASTARDLY DUO ARE BACK!!!! Welcome to the first podcast of 2022 What do you get when you cross a project manager with a psychologist and a schizophrenic? The answer, is a very effective M&A Integration Manager, at least that's the view of the Dastardly Duo aka Robert Heaton and Toby Tester in the very first podcast of 2022. Why such a description? Well in today's podcast Robert and Toby explore how an integration manager must be able to deliver the expected value from the deal, operat...
THE VERY LAST PODCAST FROM ROBERT AND TOBY - - MAYBE
December 13, 2021 07:00 - 35 minutes - 24.3 MBRobert and Toby first decided to record this podcast when COVID forced everyone into lockdown. That was 18 months ago and the dastardly duo has recorded 62 episodes on every facet of M&A. We both have other pressures to deal with now that COVID is taking a backseat (we hope) so for the time being, this is the very last podcast - or maybe the last podcast of 2021. Who knows what 2022 will deliver. So in this last episode, we've looked back on the past 18 months and summarised what we talked...
CHOOSE THE RIGHT LEADERSHIP STYLE FOR SUCCESS IN M&A
November 08, 2021 04:00 - 34 minutes - 23.5 MBRobert and Toby have always extolled the quality of leadership as being fundamental to M&A success and most listeners would agree that executing the right deal and developing the vision and strategy for the business are core values that you would expect from any leadership team. But what about when the deal is closed and it's time to integrate the new acquisition and turn that vision into strategic and operations reality? That's where another level of leadership is required and Toby argues t...
EXPLORING THE NECESSITY FOR LEADERSHIP TO BE COMPETENT AT EVERY LEVEL OF THE BUSINESS
October 03, 2021 06:00 - 25 minutes - 17.7 MBLeadership is an endless topic and this time around Robert and Toby examine M&A Leadership at the CEO level. Robert kicks off by giving two examples. #1 is a CEO who is a high-risk taker but has charmed the board, shareholders, and Wall Street with his daring acquisition strategy but is never seen to engage below the C suite level. #2 is a CEO who has a steady and consistent relationship with the board and shareholders but is also highly visible at operational levels and with customers. ...
LEADERSHIP AND ITS MANY DISGUISES
September 17, 2021 05:00 - 36 minutes - 25.4 MBLeadership is one of those topics that is really hard to wrap your head around because, in Robert and Toby's opinion, Leadership isn't just the person with the grandest title at the top of the tree, Leadership is invested in many people through every facet of an organization. That is particularly true in Mergers and Acquisitions where Leadership should be demonstrated by different people at varying stages of the M&A deal cycle. In this episode we unpick the leadership responsibilities of a...
LEADERSHIP AND ITS MANY DISGUISES
September 17, 2021 05:00 - 36 minutes - 25.4 MBLeadership is one of those topics that is really hard to wrap your head around because, in Robert and Toby's opinion, Leadership isn't just the person with the grandest title at the top of the tree, Leadership is invested in many people through every facet of an organization. That is particularly true in Mergers and Acquisitions where Leadership should be demonstrated by different people at varying stages of the M&A deal cycle. In this episode we unpick the leadership responsibilities of a...
WHAT IS LEADERSHIP? ARE GOOD LEADERS SIMPLY BORN THAT WAY?
August 31, 2021 04:00 - 27 minutes - 19.1 MBIn this latest podcast, Robert and Toby have pivoted away from M&A disaster stories and moved towards an examination of leadership? Why you might ask. Well, in all of Robert and Toby's experience, good leadership (or bad leadership for that matter) has been the instrumental factor in whether an acquisition is successful. So that got the dastardly duo thinking about what exactly defines leadership? Are good leaders simply born that way or can people be developed into leadership? The answer ...
GOOGLE BUYS AND SELLS MOTOROLA IN LESS THAN 2 YEARS
August 17, 2021 04:00 - 18 minutes - 12.8 MBAnother acquisition dissected by the dastardly duo of Toby Tester and Robert Heaton and this week it's Google's $12.5Bn acquisition of Motorola. A deal which they then sold to Lenovo less than 2 years later, for $2.9Bn. On the first examination, this looks like a disaster, but in reality, Google came out of this break-even. Why? because Motorola had $3.2Bn in cash, the sale to Lenovo offered Google a $2.5Bn tax benefit and they retained 17,000: Yes, you read that correctly - Seventeen Thou...
SPRINT AND NEXTEL - A RECIPE FOR SUCCESSFULLY LOSING $30 BILLION IN THREE YEARS
July 27, 2021 03:00 - 30 minutes - 21.3 MBYou might have thought that Robert and Toby would have run out of M&A disaster stories by now? Oh, Ye of little faith. THis week we explore Sprint's majority shareholding acquisition of Nextel to try and unpack how a $35 Billion investment in 2005, resulted in a $30 Billion write-off just three years later. The deal vision made sense and there were significant economies and efficiencies to make the combined business a challenging #3 globally to AT&T and Verizon. Better still, there was sig...
DAIMLER-CHRYSLER MERGER OF EQUALS - FROM $35bn to $7.4bn IN NINE YEARS
July 20, 2021 07:00 - 30 minutes - 20.7 MBThis week Robert and Toby discuss the failed 'merger. between automotive giants Chrysler and Daimer-Benz. On paper this was supposed to be a win-win. The $36 Billion 'Merger of Equals' was supposed to raise Benz's market share in the U.S. auto market. Chrysler was supposed to improve its vehicles through Daimler-Benz' car expertise and the combined strength of Daim;er-Chrysler would stave off competition from the Japanese and deliver synergies and other benefits worth $8 Billion Nine years...
ALCATEL LUCENT: THE TYRANNIES OF DISTANCE, LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND PERSONALITIES
July 15, 2021 00:00 - 33 minutes - 23.3 MBA Frenchman and an American walk into a bar and over pissaladière and fried chilli chicken wings come up with the idea of working together and operating efficiently from their respective home turf to compete cost effectively with competitors from China and Asia Pacific. What could possibly go wrong On face value, the merger of Alcatel and Lucent was a necessity to ward off serious global competition from Huawei and other telecom competitors. The combined strength of both organisations mad...
ORACLES ACQUISITION OF PEOPLESOFT - LARRY ELLISON AT HIS FINEST
July 06, 2021 05:00 - 34 minutes - 23.4 MBIn today's episode Robert draws on personal experience of Oracles acquisition of Peoplesoft and subsequently J.D.Edwards. Robert was part of J.D.Edwards global leadership at the time so watched this deal evolve from the inside. And whilst his career suffered as a result (Oracle removed the J.D.Edwards leadership team) Robert has to admire the brilliance of Ellison's strategy and execution. This was Larry Ellison at his finest. He saw Peoplesoft and J.D.Edwards agreeing-to merge and pounce...
AOL + TIME WARNER - HOW TO SPEND $350 BILLION AND LOSE $99 BILLION IN TWO YEARS
July 06, 2021 01:00 - 35 minutes - 24.5 MBRobert & Toby continue to unpack some of the worst M&A deals in corporate history and this week it's the disastrous $350 Billion merger / acquisition between AOL and Time Warner. On the surface, this 1999 deal was the stuff of dreams and it made a lot of sense in many ways BUT - This was DOT.COM era, the bubble had just burst and high speed broadband internet was rapidly replacing Time Warners dial up modem technology. Worse still, the dream was never transformed into a clear vision. Signif...
HEWLETT PACKARD'S 2011 DISASTROUS ACQUISITION OF AUTONOMY
June 16, 2021 04:00 - 37 minutes - 25.9 MBLast week we asked the question Could it get any worse? Well, Toby has excelled as usual and the acquisition of Autonomy must go down in history as one of the worst, most value-destroying deals in the history of the Tech Industry and Corporate America. This story is a bit like “Air Crash Investigations”. It’s not just one factor that conspired in a complete M&A disaster, but a number. Let’s list them: A CEO desperate to make a deal and rushed the process Two diametrically opposing cultu...
FRED THE SHRED AND A RIGHT ROYAL M&A DISASTER
June 08, 2021 06:00 - 25 minutes - 17.5 MBIn the past weeks, we've been reviewing some thew worst M&A disasters in corporate history and this week I think Toby has found one of, if not THE worst M&A disaster in corporate history. This was Royal Bank of Scotland's disastrous takeover of Dutch Bank, ABN Amro in 2007 and not only was it a massive disaster for Royal Bank of Scotland, it almost brought the UK economy to its knees. Bottom line, it had ALL the hallmarks of a recipe for guaranteed disaster: An egocentric bully in the CEO'...
FRED THE SHRED AND A RIGHT ROYAL M&A DISASTER
June 08, 2021 06:00 - 25 minutes - 17.5 MBIn the past weeks, we've been reviewing some thew worst M&A disasters in corporate history and this week I think Toby has found one of, if not THE worst M&A disaster in corporate history. This was Royal Bank of Scotland's disastrous takeover of Dutch Bank, ABN Amro in 2007 and not only was it a massive disaster for Royal Bank of Scotland, it almost brought the UK economy to its knees. Bottom line, it had ALL the hallmarks of a recipe for guaranteed disaster: An egocentric bully in the CEO'...
EBAY'S DISASTROUS AND COSTLY ACQUISITION OF SKYPE
June 03, 2021 11:00 - 21 minutes - 14.8 MBRobert and Toby continue to unpack some of the most disastrous M&A deals in corporate history. This week it's EBay's costly and disastrous acquisition of Skype. Her's the dot-points. Ebay thought it could leverage Skype to provide a voice and video channel for its customers and sellers to communicate. What they didn't do was talk to their customers, because they would have learned that EBay customers want anonymity and were perfectly happy with messaging and email communication - and they s...
YAHOO'S M&A MURDER OF FLICKR
May 25, 2021 03:00 - 23 minutes - 16.1 MBWe continue to unpack some of history's M&A disasters and this week Toby delves into what he calls YAHOO's Murder of Flickr. This story kicks off in 2003 during the early years of the internet when Flickr was a fledgling start-up desperately needing a larger partner to accelerate the innovation and seize what could have been a massive transformational opportunity. On paper Yahoo looked like the ideal partner but in reality the partnership was ambushed by Corporate Development who were int...
THE STARS ALIGN - TOLL GLOBAL EXPRESS + CHRISTINE HOLGATE + ALLEGRO EQUITY
May 13, 2021 06:00 - 27 minutes - 18.8 MBThe recent announcement that Japan Post have finally unloaded Toll's Global Express to Apollo Equity Partners will bring a sigh of relief in Japan Post's boardroom and a wry smile to the face of Apollo's Leadership. Better still, the appointment of Christine Holgate as Global Express' CEO is a smack in the teeth for Australia Post. Watch this space (if you will excuse the pun) Robert and Toby are by no means experts on the initial acquisition of Toll Group by Japan Post and the debacle th...
THE STARS ALIGN - TOLL GLOBAL EXPRESS + CHRISTINE HOLGATE + ALLEGRO EQUITY
May 13, 2021 06:00 - 27 minutes - 18.8 MBThe recent announcement that Japan Post have finally unloaded Toll's Global Express to Apollo Equity Partners will bring a sigh of relief in Japan Post's boardroom and a wry smile to the face of Apollo's Leadership. Better still, the appointment of Christine Holgate as Global Express' CEO is a smack in the teeth for Australia Post. Watch this space (if you will excuse the pun) Robert and Toby are by no means experts on the initial acquisition of Toll Group by Japan Post and the debacle th...
M&A PRINCIPLES MADE SIMPLE - EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE - COMFORT OR PANIC ?
May 06, 2021 01:00 - 24 minutes - 16.7 MBWe've set out on a quest to narrow down M&A to a set of key principles that can be expressed in one line statements. It's a work in progress, but Toby sets out an example to get the conversation started We follow this up with a conversation about that feeling of either certain confidence or get wrenching uneasiness that you might get as you review your progress in an M&A deal. Some call it Emotional Intelligence, but what is it exactly? And as usual we finish up with three further quotes ...
TOBY'S PREDICTION COMES TRUE + MURPHY'S LAW AND SIXTH SENSE M&A
May 05, 2021 23:00 - 24 minutes - 17.1 MBToby's prediction from 6 months ago comes true as he shares the news that Westpac will use divestitures to drive a massive 21% annual savings across the business. We discuss how this will be a repeat pattern as other businesses re-focus on their core strengths and aim to build protection from post COVID experiences and also deliver stronger returns to shareholders. Robert introduces the principles of Murphy's Law and Sixth Sense in M&A using a very recent deal collapse where Murphy's law in...