After two subdued years, strategic M&A is returning. Boards have rebuilt balance sheets, financing markets have reopened, and pressure to find growth is intensifying. Yet the evidence on what happens after a deal closes remains sobering: in our analysis of more than 400 transactions, fewer than half delivered the synergies promised at announcement.
The reason is rarely the deal thesis itself. More often, value leaks away in the first hundred days, when attention shifts from closing the transaction to running the combined business.
Where value leaks
Three patterns recur across underperforming integrations. Each is predictable, and each is avoidable.
- Customers are left unattended while sales teams are reorganized, and competitors move quickly.
- Decision rights are unclear, so critical choices on products, systems, and people stall.
- Synergy targets live in a spreadsheet owned by finance, rather than in the plans of the leaders who must deliver them.
The integration plan is the deal thesis made real. If it is not ready on day one, the thesis is already at risk.
What the best acquirers do differently
The most successful acquirers treat integration planning as part of the deal, not an afterthought. They name the integration leader before signing, protect key customers and talent with explicit plans, and give the board a single view of synergy delivery every month.
None of this is complicated. But it requires discipline at precisely the moment when leadership attention is most stretched. That is where the next wave of M&A will be won or lost.
Discuss this with Richard.
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