How synergies drive successful acquisitions: Identifying, realizing, and tracking synergies in the M&A process

April 2010
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How synergies drive successful acquisitions: Identifying, realizing, and tracking synergies in the M&A process

At a glance

This summary of a PwC forum captures corporate development executives' best practices and ideas on capturing, modeling, executing and tracking synergies in an acquisition.

Learn from business leaders the importance of:

  • Recognizing potential synergies and incorporating them into the valuation process
  • Transparency and accountability throughout the execution phase of an integration
  • Tracking synergies post-deal to enable proper evaluation of the acquisition

When applied to deals and valuation theory, synergy means both companies win. Because synergies are often the only tangible justification for acquisitions, sophisticated and repetitive buyers must orient their acquisition processes -- from screening through post-integration monitoring -- to focus deal and business unit teams on identifying, executing, and tracking synergies.

To provide business leaders with a venue to share leading practices and learn from the obstacles encountered in efforts to capture synergies, PwC facilitated two roundtable discussions. This publication summarizes the discussions.