Mergers and Acquisitions

Through a dynamic mix of lectures, case studies, class discussions, hands-on learning, and visits from guest speakers, this program provides critical insights and powerful tools for the successful formulation and execution of an M&A strategy — one that creates true value for your organization. At the end of each day, you’ll put classroom learning into action, applying key concepts to a simulated merger deal. By combining the expertise of Stanford’s strategy, finance, accounting, and organizational behavior faculty, Mergers and Acquisitions offers an interdisciplinary overview of the major elements of M&A transactions. You will examine all of the key aspects of a merger: target selection, alternative valuation and pricing models, deal design, negotiation strategies, accounting and tax planning, and post-merger integration planning and execution. And you will cover these essential concepts in a sequential order that simulates the M&A process.

Why do the majority of M&A transactions fail to provide the expected benefits? How do you formulate and execute an M&A strategy that creates real value for your organization?

Stanford’s Mergers and Acquisitions program tackles the entire M&A process from beginning to end.

Below are just a few of the sessions you’ll attend as part of the program.

As pre-work for the program, Professor Peter DeMarzo has developed this online course on Financial Valuation and Strategy. The course will walk you through the logic for and main steps in building a financial model. It is designed to be both a refresher for those with some background in finance, as well as an introduction to the topic for non-financial executives who would like to be more effective in communicating about finance-related issues within their organizations.

We will build on this material once you arrive, and your activities in this online course will be used as a starting point for the in-person sessions on valuing the firm and shareholder value.

The M&A team simulation project has been designed around the unique needs of executive-level participants.

This Stanford GSB proprietary project spans the entire week of the program and provides hands-on experience with all aspects of an M&A deal, giving you the opportunity to implement the tools acquired throughout the week. At the end of the week, teams will present their decisions and outcomes to share their learning.

The process of negotiation requires that each participant understands both his own and his counterpart’s interests and preferences.

Many negotiators do not give sufficient consideration to identifying what they want. And many more negotiators do not have sufficient insight into the perspectives of their counterparts to put forward value-creating proposals.

This session will explore strategies to follow and pitfalls to avoid, enabling participants to get more of what they want out of negotiations by improving the quality of their planning and preparation processes.

The choice of a particular structure for an M&A deal can have major income-tax implications for both the buyer and the seller, which is why it’s imperative that even non-financial executives understand the fundamentals of successful M&A tax planning.

During two class sessions, you will gain familiarity with several basic tax structures for M&A deals, understand the circumstances under which particular structures are more favorable, and recognize how a carefully planned tax strategy can help maximize the potential value of a particular deal.

Before an M&A deal is done, the planning for the successful integration and management of the newly combined organizations should be well underway. Using research and business cases as references, you will analyze and discuss the structural, cultural, and social implications of combining organizations.

You will identify the core components of a post-merger integration model to capture and deliver the potential value of merger opportunities and learn practical tools for cultural integration.