Adjusted
A Newsletter for Deal Pros
"The effectiveness of a group of people is not determined by their IQ but by how well they communicate."
- David Brooks
The Crux
Bridging a $30 Million Valuation Gap Without Splitting the Difference
A buyer and seller ended up $30 million apart on a $100 million business. Industry-wide supplier surcharges had cut run-rate EBITDA from $10 million to as little as $6 million, and nobody knew how long they would last. Instead of splitting the difference, one buyer treated the surcharges as a temporary cash cost rather than a permanent hit to earnings. That let it build a structure both sides could sign. A case study in putting a price on uncertainty. Read more
Origin Stories
District Taco
When the 2008 recession wiped out his construction work, Osiris Hoil started cooking his mother’s recipes for his neighbors. One of them paid for a food cart in Rosslyn, Virginia. A loyal customer showed him how to post the cart’s location online each day, and the lines followed. This is the story of a business born out of necessity that ...
The Art of Asking Good Questions
Foundational Questions
Most diligence rework doesn’t start with a bad model. It starts when the team moves fast before everyone agrees on what the target does and what the client actually needs. After one all-night rewrite too many, our team built a ten-question framework that takes 30 to 60 minutes and gets everyone aligned before the analysis begins. Read more
Never miss a headline!
Subscribe to our newsletter.
Get the latest stories delivered straight to your inbox.
Habits That Create Value
Be Precise in Your Communication & Thinking
The Mars Climate Orbiter burned up on arrival, a $125 million loss. One team worked in metric, the other in feet and inches, and nobody checked. Deal teams make the same mistake in quieter ways, and millions can ride on it. Here are five habits for sharper thinking and clearer communication. Read more
Recommendations & Reviews
Fooling Some People All of the Time
David Einhorn spent six years arguing that Allied Capital’s valuation rested on questionable accounting. His account of that fight is a master class in diligence: start with the numbers, dig where the story and the data disagree, and challenge your own assumptions. Here’s what M&A teams can take from it. Read more
I Wish I Had Known
I Wish I Had Known: John Ellison
Deal Guide John Ellison came to M&A for the pay and stayed for the work and the people. He talks about valuing a business from both the top down and the bottom up, and why listening beats talking. He also shares the two things he wishes he’d known sooner: every top job is a sales job, and learning to code ...
