Complete 2-3 right-fit acquisitions within the next year so that your company can accelerate growth, capture new markets, and strengthen your competitive position.
Stop missing out on good acquisitions, eliminate your team's burnout and avoid making expensive deal mistakes.
Discover details below about our M&A Growth Accelerator designed to:
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Identify 2-3 potential acquisition areas and 5-7 targeted acquisition opportunities within each area that fit your profile
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Build consensus among your full senior team to ensure alignment
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Provide a complete step by step process to successfully navigate your M&A journey from start to finish
The M&A Growth Accelerator
If you’re considering M&A, we are excited at the chance to serve you because we find you the right deal and make the deal happen.
Follow our lead and today could be the last day you worry about finding 2-3 potential acquisitions that your company can pursue so that you can exceed your growth goals this year, fend off competition, enter a new market and strengthen your competitive position in your industry.
We are so confident we back up our promise with a two-part guarantee:
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In 10 days, we will show you 2 - 3 areas where you can pursue acquisitions and a list of 5 - 7 targets within each area that fit the profile.
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In 30 days, we will create consensus among your senior team on the target acquisition areas, and your collective decision to pursue an acquisition on the list for the next year.
Both of these things happen, or we keep working until it’s done.
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You are supported every step of the way with the guidance of a senior Athena lead who will be your point of contact during the entire journey.
Every single client gets the below five deliverables:
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Strategic Acquisition Blueprint: A comprehensive analysis identifying 2-3 strategic areas for potential acquisitions, including the reason for why these areas would be a good fit for your company
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Target Identification Matrix: A curated list of 5-7 potential acquisition targets within each identified area, complete with company description, key metrics, and strategic fit analysis.
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Consensus Building Workshop: A facilitated workshop with your senior team to build consensus on the strategic acquisition areas and prioritize targets, ensuring alignment and buy-in for the acquisition strategy.
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Valuation Guidance: An overview of the two common valuation methods to help you evaluate how much to pay for an acquisition target, ensuring you make informed financial decisions.
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Actionable Roadmap: An actionable plan outlining the next steps for pursuing the top acquisition targets, including timelines, resources required, and key milestones.
All you have to do is to attend our structured meetings with us and provide us with the necessary information about your current business.
We will collaborate with you and / or your designated executive team members or general managers to make this a seamless experience.
You want to grow your business faster than your current business model and strategy allow.
You may be considering acquiring another business to enter new markets or launch new products and services.
You might recognize that your customers are expecting improved or different offerings, or you may notice competitors gaining an edge.
Sometimes, growth in your core services and products slows, prompting the need for a new approach to break through the plateau.
However, you often face complex questions on their M&A journey:
Should we pursue acquisitions or continue with our current strategy?
What are our competitors doing?
What markets and target profiles should we consider?
How do we find and approach these businesses?
What is a fair price, and how do we minimize risks?
How do we create long-term value post-acquisition?
In addition, trying to execute this process on your own is often challenging, and mistakes can be expensive.
Moreover, with multiple initiatives already on their plates, it can be difficult for CEOs and executive teams to devote the necessary time and attention to an M&A strategy. This slows down progress and the company may lose out on valuable opportunities.
Building an in-house M&A team is an option but expensive. And since deal work fluctuates on and off, the deal team may not be fully utilized at all times.
Are you considering M&A but facing any of these challenges?
Athena's corporate development process is a “done for you” service that provides comprehensive support to solve these challenges so that you can find and close the right fit acquisitions that will
Drive strategic growth
Help you expand into new markets and offerings
Maintain and strengthen your competitive position
Common Challenges
Should we buy businesses to grow?
What are our competitors doing?
What markets and target profiles should we consider?
How do we find these businesses?
How do we get them to the table?
How much do we pay?
How do we minimize our risk?
How do we create long term value?
How Athena's Corporate Development process helps
Define the M&A strategy
Conduct competitive and market analysis
Partner with stakeholders to identify growth areas
Develop the pipeline
Find the right fit companies
Manage the full deal process from sourcing to close
Integrate the business
Identify and proactively mitigate deal risks
Develop value creation plans
Our Process
Now, the M&A process is a transformative journey requiring organizational commitment and coordination.
Our typical end to end corporate development process for clients involves the following steps:
M&A STRATEGY
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M&A Strategy
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Pipeline build criteria
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Identify targets
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Identify the most likely path to reach the company's inorganic goals quickly
OUTREACH
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Outreach to targets
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Engage with targets
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Market test the planned strategy.
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Identify willing targets in 2-3 months
VALUATION AND PRELIMINARY WORK
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Valuation
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Preliminary Diligence
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LOI (Letter of Intent)
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Get comfortable with how much to pay for the target
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Deal structure for an LOI
DUE DILIGENCE
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Facilitate comprehensive due diligence
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Understand the mitigate the business and legal risks
​NEGOTIATION & AGREEMENT
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Negotiate and structure the deal
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Negotiate the deal and for the right structure
INTEGRATION
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integrate the acquisition and drive deal synergies
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Help acquirer to fully integrate the target's business and extract synergies
What our clients say
“Most notably, Sri’s work helped Cox create a thesis, landscape a market and make a sizable investment in highly strategically company. This investment and the body of work to support it took nearly six months of weekly sessions with key leaders; Sri’s analyses were key to our ability to support the thesis and helped elevate our team’s thinking.”
Christine Primmer
Lead, Strategic Business Development, Cox Communications
“In a matter of 5-6 weeks, Athena helped us to bring one deal past LOI and to drive two other substantial deals to a successful resolution.”
Wilkie Catron
Vice President & Head of Corporate Development, Johnson Controls
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We closed one deal in six weeks, and obtained the internal funding to do so… We now have a highly scalable and robust model that can be easily applied to other markets and new opportunities.”
Gannon Murphy
General Manager, Cinelease Studios
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“You’ve pushed us to ask ourselves the hard questions earlier on in the process, including the synergies possible, how we will integrate the target (or not), and what the business needs to be able to achieve to justify the valuation.”
Julie Shaver
Corporate Development & Strategy, RGP, SVP
FAQ
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What size companies does the M&A Growth Accelerator work for?This M&A Growth Accelerator is designed for companies with at least $100M in revenue. Smaller companies may also benefit from this process, but we'll need to discuss to determine if it's the right fit.
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What team do I need to have to do M&A?Most companies utilize their internal functional teams for due diligence. We assist with sourcing, facilitating the entire diligence process, valuation, negotiation, and structuring the deal.
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Can this process work for us if we haven't fully decided whether to do acquisitions or not?Yes. This process is designed to help you evaluate whether acquisitions are the right path for your company. We'll guide you through identifying potential opportunities, assessing strategic fit, and building consensus among your team, so you can make an informed decision on whether to pursue acquisitions.
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Is our company's information kept confidential? Do you sign an NDA?Yes, your company’s information is treated with the utmost confidentiality. We always sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to ensure that your sensitive business information is fully protected throughout our engagement.
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What would we need to do during this process?During the process, your primary responsibility will be to provide us with the necessary information about your current business and participate in structured meetings with our team. Athena will take ownership of gathering the right information, conducting the analysis and research, generating the deliverables for the M&A Growth Accelerator, and ensuring that your executive team is fully aligned on the next steps. We work closely with you to make this a seamless and efficient experience.
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What is the pricing for the M&A Growth Accelerator?Pricing typically starts at $4,500, and we can give you the exact price after we discuss your company and growth objectives.