You talked the talk, now walk the walk – Post-Acquisition To-Dos

Well, you did it.  You closed on the acquisition.  All the months of due diligence and planning and now everything is signed and the money (or most of it) is in the hands of the Seller.  Now what do you do?  Everyone talked the talk before the closing, but now it is time to walk the walk.

Below is a good post-acquisition checklist you may want to review if M&A is in your near future:

1. Who is the point person or team to execute the post-merger checklist?
2. Who will hold that person or team accountable?
3. What are the post-closing deliverables?
4. When are the post-closing deliverables due?
5. Do you understand all the reps and warranties from the purchase agreement?   What happens if there is an issue with one or several of them?
6. How quickly will the new employees be merged into the new organization?
7. What about rebranding?
8. How are you notifying the clients/customers?
9. What about technology?
10. What are the key measurables to know if the integration is working?

While these may seem simple, I can assure you that they are often ignored.  In fact, many become a source of tension and often lead to chaos within an organization in the first 6-12 months post-acquisition.  You likely won’t cover everything but knowing the key issues is more than half the battle.  Make sure you lean on your management team, professional advisors and business mentors for help.  Below are some good resources to review:

• Mergers and acquisitions – HBR
• M&A Insights | McKinsey & Company
• Future of M&A Trends Survey | Deloitte US
• 10 Best Sources to Get the Latest M&A News in 2022 (dealroom.net)
• 2021 was a blowout year for M&A – 2022 could be even bigger (kpmg.us)

Here are a few other things that may be of interest:

• How State of the Union Plans Could Impact Small Business (nfib.com)
• Helpful Coronavirus Resource Pages
  • EisnerAmper Coronavirus Hub
  • NFIB Small Business Resources in Response to Coronavirus
  • RKL Coronavirus Resource Page
  • Trout CPA Covid-19 Resources
  • The Tax Warriors Covid-19 Tax Resource Center
  • COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Resources | Littler Mendelson P.C.

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As always, please don’t hesitate to email myself (jsanders@mpl-law.com), Andy Miller (amiller@mpl-law.com), Christian Miller (cmiller@mpl-law.com), Erik Spurlin (espurlin@mpl-law.com) or anyone in our office with questions or comments.