Acquisition Diligence: Corporate Development

The deal model leaned on cross-sell revenue the internal team could not independently verify. Corp dev needed evidence on two fronts: the target's standalone commercial health, and whether customers would actually buy the combined offering. Overpaying for revenue that never materialises is the classic strategic-M&A failure.

• +Split the diligence into two questions: is the standalone story real, and does the cross-sell revenue hold with customers
• +Sourced ten experts, the target's customers, two competitors and shared-channel partners
• +Tested the specific cross-sell assumptions the deal model depended on
• +Held every call to general market knowledge, screened before delivery

• +Ten anonymised call notes plus a synthesis split by standalone and cross-sell findings
• +An independent read on whether customers would adopt the combined offering
• +A flag on the two cross-sell assumptions least supported by the market

• +The team proceeded but re-based the revenue case on the assumptions the market actually supported
• +One cross-sell assumption the model relied on was cut after customers rejected it
• +The two-question format became corp dev's template for every strategic bolt-on

This is a representative, anonymised composite of a typical corporates & strategy engagement. Client identity is removed and the figures illustrate the format and scale of the work. They are not a record of a single named mandate. Every expert call is scoped to general market knowledge, screened for material non-public information before findings reach a deal team, and documented for audit. See our compliance framework for full detail.