The problem
The deal looks good in the boardroom deck. The strategic logic is sound, the synergies are “conservative,” the price is “full but fair.” Then it closes — and quietly dilutes your earnings for three years.
Most acquisitions destroy value, and rarely for the reason people fear. It isn’t the headline price; it’s the £20m synergy number nobody stress-tested, the quality-of-earnings adjustment diligence should have caught, the closing-day funds flow that came up £3m short, the earn-out that turned buyer and seller into enemies.
A deal is a chain of models, and it breaks at the weakest one. The practitioners who do this for a living build every link before they sign.
What this book gives you
How to Master M&A Models & Frameworks walks you through the 22 models that run a real transaction — from first screen to integration — each a full chapter with the working Excel behind it.
- Accretion / Dilution
- The Merger Model
- Comparables & Precedents
- Cost & Revenue Synergies
- Sources & Uses
- Quality of Earnings
- Earn-out Structuring
- PMI Workstreams
… 22 in all, from valuation to funds flow to Day One.
See it move
Build the accretion/dilution model: combine two companies, fund the deal with your chosen mix of cash, debt and shares, and it tells you whether year-one EPS rises or falls. Shift the consideration from shares to debt, or trim the synergy assumption, and watch an “accretive” deal turn dilutive in front of you. Better to see it here than in the first results announcement.
Buying more than one category? All 25 books and every one of the 467 models are £29.99 in the Business Framework Omnibus — less than the price of a third book. Prefer to try first? The free Framework Starter Pack gives you five complete chapters and their live Excel models.
22 frameworks. One category. The complete learning path. Every model in M&A Models and Frameworks — explained, applied, and ready to use.
How to Master M&A Models and Frameworks walks you through the complete arc: 22 models, in the order you'd actually learn them, each with a full practitioner chapter and a live Excel companion.
- 22 models across M&A Models and Frameworks, the complete learning path
- Full practitioner chapters plus a live Excel companion for every model
- Written from 30+ years in investment banking, M&A and private equity
M&A Models and Frameworks at a Glance
