Review: Due Diligence: The Critical Stage in Mergers and Acquisitions

Due Diligence: The Critical Stage in Mergers and Acquisitions by Peter Howson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Read this book to get a quick refresher and also to allow me to structure my knowledge on Due Diligence. I achieved both objectives. Not bad!

The book is a good guidance on the subject and makes you think through different lenses/areas of expertise the basics of this important and more often than not difficult phase of every M&A project.

It provides you practical watch-outs and leads you through the main areas of a Due Diligence and presents the main objectives, activities that should be undertaken & discloses the main risks and concerns.

For the areas where you are not an expert, it brings awareness of what you should expect and allows you to have an educated conversation with the subject matter expert on the required deliverables.

The check lists presented are a good tool, nonetheless the main one on appendix A should have been organized by area and not has it was disclosed (it seems randomly made).

Finally, i think what is called Commercial Due Diligence should have been named Strategic Due Diligence and the area of Risk is clearly lacking inputs and it's significantly below the other chapters of the books.

ps - due to the author nationality, the subjects presented are clearly skewed from an UK perspective, but that does not undermines the quality and insights conveyed.





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