The objective of this post is to provide product managers with some practical insights into the overall merger and acquisition process. I have been involved in product management for over 15 years. As a corporate development executive, I have led five major acquisitions and eight divestitures. This is the first of a three part series. It will focus on the major types of acquisitions. The second will focus on roles and responsibilities in the M&A process, especially for product managers. The final installment will walk through the major process steps in a typical M&A deal.

One of the key themes I have reinforced over my 15 year career in product management is basic financial literacy. Product managers need to be able to locate, read, and interpret basic financial filings like Annual Reports (10-Ks), quarterly filings (10-Qs) and Proxy Statements (Def 14As). There is a ton of information that customers and competitors who are public companies must disclose. This information can make or break a sales deal or competitive steal away campaign.

A short presentation for product managers on how to analyze a potential acquisition candidate and present it to senior management. Acquisition analysis leverages open source and other publicly available information. This presentation covers the key concepts associated with acquisition candidate analysis, the process of developing an analysis, a sample ‘teaser’ presentation used to present information to senior management, boards of directors, and investors.

How to find repeatable sales transactions to scale revenues in tough times. You can also use the moneywheel to estimate the size and scale of demand generation requirements needed to hit product/service line revenue targets.