<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><rss xmlns:atom='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' version='2.0'><channel><atom:id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512</atom:id><lastBuildDate>Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:29:29 +0000</lastBuildDate><title>Baker Pacific Blog</title><description>Corporate development and M&amp;A&lt;br&gt;in the telecommunications and Internet sectors&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;</description><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/blog.html</link><managingEditor>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</managingEditor><generator>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>16</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-6552595382804336760</guid><pubDate>Sat, 07 Jun 2008 01:43:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-09-09T13:05:38.121-07:00</atom:updated><title>Due Diligence in Reverse</title><atom:summary type='text'>Companies in the midst of being acquired expect the potential acquirer to perform a thorough due diligence review. But what level of due diligence on the acquirer, or “reverse due diligence,” should they demand?

There are several aspects this question.

Cash as consideration

First, for the investors / shareholders, does the health of the acquirer affect the consideration received? In the case </atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2008/06/due-diligence-in-reverse.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-8689854162841375636</guid><pubDate>Mon, 01 Oct 2007 05:18:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-10-21T16:41:46.867-07:00</atom:updated><title>Should We Make That Strategic Investment?</title><atom:summary type='text'>As a large technology company, is investing in a smaller commercial partner a great opportunity strategically and financially, or is it a distraction and a waste of resources?

I’ve seen quite a bit of discussion on the subject of whether a small, growing technology company should take a strategic investment from a larger company in the same industry. However, I’ve seen much less that addresses </atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2007/09/should-we-make-that-strategic.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-6055783776213119749</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:30:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-08-29T16:34:46.107-07:00</atom:updated><title>Four Important Things to Know Before You Sell Your Company</title><atom:summary type='text'>The idea of selling your company, receiving a huge payment, and then relaxing on a quiet beach sounds very attractive – what’s not to like? However, it’s important to know what to expect before making the decision to sell.

Here are a few of the basics to be prepared for when contemplating selling your company:

1. Be patient

Even with interested buyers, the process of getting to an acceptable </atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2007/08/four-important-things-to-know-before.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-404525515764208764</guid><pubDate>Wed, 06 Jun 2007 05:27:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-06-05T22:44:43.351-07:00</atom:updated><title>Which Comes First, the M&amp;A Strategy or the M&amp;A Execution?</title><atom:summary type='text'>The obvious answer to this is that M&amp;A strategy comes first, and M&amp;A execution follows the strategy. I agree with this as the ideal and preferred method for determining acquisitions, but I’d argue that there is actually room for the reverse as well, with proper discipline.

Clearly, the textbook order of progression is:

1. Corporate strategy
2. M&amp;A strategy
3. M&amp;A screening and targeting
4. M&amp;A </atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2007/06/which-comes-first-m-strategy-or-m.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-588920918104289365</guid><pubDate>Mon, 14 May 2007 19:11:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-05-14T13:11:46.467-07:00</atom:updated><title>Planning Ahead to be Acquired</title><atom:summary type='text'>In Mergers &amp; Acquisitions, a logical corollary to the acquiring company asking itself “What am I buying?” is the selling company asking itself:

“What am I selling?”

A company should be run as an ongoing business, not with the express purpose of an exit. However, there are measures that can be taken to increase the odds of eventually being acquired.

One of those is to determine the companies </atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2007/05/planning-ahead-to-be-acquired.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-7827838477561152798</guid><pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 2007 05:52:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-03-01T18:58:59.704-08:00</atom:updated><title>The Most Important Question in Mergers &amp; Acquisitions</title><atom:summary type='text'>An acquisition is obviously a very involved process, involving strategic considerations and numerous qualitative and quantitative criteria. The importance of being thoughtful, thorough, analytical, and prepared cannot be overstated. However, it’s frequently helpful to take a step back during the acquisition process to ask:

“What am I buying?”

Of course, there’s no right answer, but there should</atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2007/02/most-important-question-in-mergers.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-2302315655378918509</guid><pubDate>Fri, 26 Jan 2007 01:23:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-02-27T14:07:44.795-08:00</atom:updated><title>Mergers &amp; Acquisitions Due Diligence, Complete Series</title><atom:summary type='text'>For convenience, the full four-part series on “The Basics of Mergers &amp; Acquisitions Due Diligence” is now available as a single reference document. It can be accessed here or from the bottom of the Baker Pacific home page.</atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2007/01/mergers-acquisitions-due-diligence.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-116496064243781398</guid><pubDate>Fri, 01 Dec 2006 08:04:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2006-12-01T00:10:42.453-08:00</atom:updated><title>Mergers &amp; Acquisitions Due Diligence, Part 4</title><atom:summary type='text'>In advising companies that are acquisition candidates, two of the questions that I most frequently receive are:

1. What should I expect from the due diligence process?
and
2. How can I best protect my confidential information while still moving the process forward?

I already covered #1 (see Due Diligence, Part 1) and Parts A and B of #2 (see Due Diligence, Part 2 and Due Diligence, Part 3).  I’</atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2006/12/mergers-acquisitions-due-diligence.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-116373008729393965</guid><pubDate>Fri, 17 Nov 2006 02:15:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2006-11-16T20:37:14.563-08:00</atom:updated><title>Mergers &amp; Acquisitions Due Diligence, Part 3</title><atom:summary type='text'>In advising companies that are acquisition candidates, two of the questions that I most frequently receive are:

1. What should I expect from the due diligence process?
and
2. How can I best protect my confidential information while still moving the process forward?

I already covered #1 (see Due Diligence, Part 1) and Part A of #2 (see Due Diligence, Part 2). I’ll cover the Part B of #2 in this </atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2006/11/mergers-acquisitions-due-diligence_16.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-116328826568658003</guid><pubDate>Sat, 11 Nov 2006 23:33:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2006-12-17T15:09:52.356-08:00</atom:updated><title>Mergers &amp; Acquisitions Due Diligence, Part 2</title><atom:summary type='text'>In advising companies that are acquisition candidates, two of the questions that I most frequently receive are:

1. What should I expect from the due diligence process?
and
2. How can I best protect my confidential information while still moving the process forward?

I addressed #1 last time (see Due Diligence, Part 1) and will cover Part A of #2 in this post, with the remainder in the next two </atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2006/11/mergers-acquisitions-due-diligence.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-116233578476243476</guid><pubDate>Tue, 31 Oct 2006 22:57:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2006-11-01T15:47:50.753-08:00</atom:updated><title>Mergers &amp; Acquisitions Due Diligence, Part 1</title><atom:summary type='text'>In advising companies that are acquisition candidates, two of the questions that I most frequently receive are:

1. What should I expect from the due diligence process?
and
2. How can I best protect my confidential information while still moving the process forward?

Of course, the due diligence process varies widely based on a number of characteristics of both the acquiring company and the </atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2006/10/mergers-acquisitions-due-diligence.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-115818067830628152</guid><pubDate>Wed, 13 Sep 2006 20:39:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2006-09-13T18:10:52.290-07:00</atom:updated><title>Swimming upstream – What about upstream bandwidth?</title><atom:summary type='text'>The big 5 ILECs and the big 5 cable companies nearly all have broadband offerings that provide downstream bandwidth of up to 5-8 Mbps for $45 per month or less. In two cases, Verizon and Cablevision, each has a set of broadband services that provides up to 10-50 Mbps downstream.

That kind of downstream speed covers the bulk of consumer applications in use today and coming in the near future.

</atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2006/09/swimming-upstream-what-about-upstream.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-115708841009625529</guid><pubDate>Fri, 01 Sep 2006 05:22:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-01-25T18:24:17.837-08:00</atom:updated><title>Insider Trading and Avoiding Leaks</title><atom:summary type='text'>Insider trading is a popular topic in the press this week.

Last Sunday’s New York Times highlights the frequency of suspicious trading activity ahead of M&amp;A news (Whispers of Mergers Set Off Suspicious Trading). The conclusions are based on an analysis by Measuredmarkets Inc. for the NY Times. What is particularly telling is that in some of the cases, “the abnormal trading occurred during </atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2006/08/insider-trading-and-avoiding-leaks.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-115431307585649028</guid><pubDate>Mon, 31 Jul 2006 02:22:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-01-25T18:28:16.624-08:00</atom:updated><title>Josh King’s AT&amp;T Wireless Post-Mortem</title><atom:summary type='text'>I enjoyed reading Josh King’s account of the sale of AT&amp;T Wireless in the Corporate Dealmaker. It certainly brings back memories of my nearly 7 years in corporate development at SBC, including a couple of multi-billion dollar deals.

I found the account interesting reading on its own, but also useful for helping to compare how others run the deal process with my own experiences. This one was </atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2006/07/josh-kings-att-wireless-post-mortem.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-115430803130711741</guid><pubDate>Mon, 31 Jul 2006 01:02:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2006-07-30T19:39:20.473-07:00</atom:updated><title>Welcome to the Baker Pacific Blog</title><atom:summary type='text'>I’m finally launching this forum for informal observations, comments, and insights on select topics, which fall into two broad categories:

1. Issues of interest from the perspective of the corporate development executive – mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, alliances, and strategy.

2. Key developments in the telecommunications and Internet sectors, particularly focused on services and </atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2006/07/welcome-to-baker-pacific-blog.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31652512.post-115406950616917733</guid><pubDate>Fri, 28 Jul 2006 06:51:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2006-07-27T23:51:46.170-07:00</atom:updated><title>Coming Soon ...</title><atom:summary type='text'></atom:summary><link>http://www.bakerpacific.com/blog/2006/07/coming-soon_27.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (David Shanberg)</author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></item></channel></rss>