M&A Science

Kison Patel

M&A Science, hosted by Kison Patel (Founder & CEO of DealRoom), is your go-to podcast for mastering the art of mergers and acquisitions. Each week, Kison and his expert guests from leading brands like Xerox, FastLap, and Cisco dig deep into real-world M&A strategies, offering actionable insights to optimize your M&A practice. Whether you're an experienced practitioner or new to the field, M&A Science provides practical advice on key topics like sourcing, due diligence, integration, divestitures, and more. With over 300 episodes, this podcast is the premier thought leadership resource designed to streamline your deal-making process. Start listening today and visit mascience.com/podcast to access over 300 episodes. Brought to you by DealRoom, the leading M&A optimization platform used by the best M&A teams around the world

  1. 21h ago

    The Nordic Compounder Playbook: How Jörgen Wigh Runs 85 Companies With 22 HQ Staff and No Integration

    Jörgen Wigh, CEO of Lagercrantz Group Lagercrantz Group has completed 90+ acquisitions over 20 years and never sold one. CEO Jörgen Wigh runs 85 niche B2B companies under a 22-person headquarters with no integration, no exits, and no value realization targets. This is Part 2 of 2. Part 1 covers the deal model, while Part 2 is the operating culture. Jörgen gets into how 85 autonomous companies are governed without a matrix structure, why this model exists almost exclusively in the Nordics, what makes a founder walk away from a signed deal twice, why Lagercrantz deliberately targets a 10% failure rate, and what he would do differently starting from scratch today. What You'll Learn How Lagercrantz governs 85 autonomous companies with 22 people at headquarters Why the person who sources the deal always stays on the board post-close Why the Nordic compounder model exists here and almost nowhere else What makes a founder walk away from a signed deal twice What a 10% deal failure rate looks like when it's working as intended Why building this from scratch today takes at least a decade How cross-border deals get done when the legal contracts run 30 pages instead of 300 If you want to know how your team stacks up against the discipline Jörgen described across both episodes, take the M&A Competency Assessment. ____________________ This episode of M&A Science is presented by DealRoom. DealRoom just launched the only MCP server built for Buyer-Led M&A™ — so your AI and your deal data finally work together. Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or Copilot directly to DealRoom and let your AI read your pipeline, analyze due diligence documents, and automatically write findings back.  See for yourself: dealroom.net/mcp ____________________ Episode Chapters [01:14] Introduction and Part 1 recap [03:54] Deal governance: go/no-go process and board sign-off [04:31] No handoffs: why the deal sourcer stays on the board post-close [04:59] HQ structure: 22 people distributed across geographies [07:05] Why so many compounder platforms come from the Nordics [07:23] The cultural reasons: flat hierarchy, financial transparency, equality [09:19] Nordic management style versus US hierarchy [13:53] Cross-border deal friction: SPA length and legal complexity [24:43] Programmatic serial acquirer versus roll-up [25:18] The 100-day plan question: when Lagercrantz uses one and when it doesn't [25:59] The Bergman & Beving spinout ecosystem: six listed companies [26:45] Jörgen's role at Bergman & Beving and how conflicts are managed [29:57] Geographic expansion: Germany, Netherlands, DACH, Northern Italy [31:30] Starting from scratch today: why programmatic takes 10 years [33:01] EPS as the true long-term performance driver, not stock price [33:52] The perpetual ownership model and why it attracts certain sellers [34:17] The founder who backed out twice, patience won the deal [35:36] Failure rate: targeting 10%, what drives deals off course

    40 min

  2. May 28

    The Nordic Compounder Playbook: How Lagercrantz Bought 90 Companies and Never Sold One

    Jörgen Wigh, CEO of Lagercrantz Group Jörgen Wigh has been CEO of Lagercrantz Group (STO: LAGR-B) for over 20 years. In that time he completed 90+ acquisitions, built a portfolio of 85 niche B2B companies, and delivered 15 consecutive years of record earnings per share. No capital raises. No forced integration. No exits. The Nordic compounder model has quietly outperformed global markets for decades, and Lagercrantz is one of the longest-running, most disciplined examples of it in operation. In Part 1 of 2, Jörgen walks through the deal model behind that track record.   What You'll Learn How Lagercrantz finds companies that are not for sale, and why the first call almost never closes a deal How Jörgen pushes for exclusivity in weeks when most sellers are running a banker-led process The earnout structure Jörgen uses to keep founders motivated for three years after signing What he says when PE shows up at 11x and the seller is tempted to take the bigger check Why founders walk away from more money for legacy preservation, and the conversation that earns it How to close 8 to 12 deals a year without breaking pricing discipline If you are holding pricing discipline against private equity and want to know whether your team would do the same, DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, runs the M&A Competency Assessment so you can benchmark deal judgment before the next term sheet. ____________________ This episode of M&A Science is presented by DealRoom. DealRoom just automated Pipeline Management with AI so you can spend less time updating deals, and more time working them.  Automatically push deal context from Outlook to DealRoom Pipeline and use AI to keep deal target data and tasks updated, so follow-ups never slip through the cracks. No manual logging. No stale pipeline data. See for yourself at dealroom.net/pipelineai ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:00] Introduction [05:48] Jörgen's path: analyst, McKinsey, and the Bergman & Beving spinout [07:00] Coming back as CEO in 2006 and rebuilding from scratch [09:21] Buy and hold, forever: how the model actually works [11:21] What makes a company worth buying (and what kills it) [12:28] A real deal: helicopter deck safety systems [13:52] Who sells to Lagercrantz, and why [15:44] The only two things Lagercrantz adds: energy and structure [20:17] Finding companies that are not for sale [22:36] When the banker shows up: getting exclusivity early [23:55] Holding the line at 4-8x EBITDA when PE bids 11x [25:09] The legacy preservation pitch that wins without matching price [33:38] Earnouts that keep founders motivated for three years [36:17] Running 85 companies with 22 people at HQ [36:46] The only three functions Lagercrantz centralizes [37:57] The annual MD conference and the peer network behind it [40:13] 8 to 12 deals a year, one a month

    43 min

  3. May 21

    M&A Integration Technology: What Actually Works

    Jim Buckley, VP M&A Integration at Coursera | Todd Manley, VP of Corp Dev Integration at Intel | Carey Pugh is Sr. Director, M&A Corporate Integration at Ansys | Mahesh Ganesan, Sr. Director, M&A Integration at UKG Four integration leaders from Intel, Coursera, Ansys, and UKG debate what integration technology actually delivers versus what creates expensive overhead and where the real value leaks are. Todd Manley, Jim Buckley, Carey Pugh, and Mahesh Ganesan bring decades of deal experience to a conversation with no presentations and no curated answers. What You'll Learn Why the diligence-to-integration handoff keeps failing and what actually fixes it How to evaluate integration technology without getting sold on complexity Where AI is genuinely useful in integration today and where it is not How to right-size your integration effort across multiple simultaneous deals Why knowledge loss is the biggest value leak in M&A and what to do about it How to handle post-close direction shifts when the acquired team changes course Why post-mortems matter and why most integration teams never run them If you're running integration without a clear line between your workstreams and the original deal thesis, DealPilot has structured integration planning frameworks built on how practitioners at Intel, Microsoft, and UKG actually run it, so you stop rebuilding from scratch every deal.  ____________________ This episode is sponsored by DealRoom Get Insights from 100+ M&A Practitioners See where M&A execution is evolving and where the competitive advantages are forming. Compare your approach to what's working for other teams.  Download the report: https://hubs.ly/Q03ZxRvD0 ____________________ Episode Chapters [04:16] Introductions: Todd Manley, Jim Buckley, Carey Pugh, Mahesh Ganesan [07:20] Integration philosophy: look back-to-forward, value drivers, keep it simple [09:16] Culture as the foundation and what "walking the walk" actually means [14:50] What separates teams that execute from teams that don't [17:30] The diligence handoff problem: what gets lost and why [23:56] Where integration technology helps and where it gets in the way [24:39] AI in integration: real use cases vs. early innings [31:02] The single source of truth problem [32:38] Non-tech tools: simplicity as a method (5 slides, 5 bullets, 5 words) [34:23] Audience Q&A: right-sizing diligence across 25 simultaneous deals [40:22] Audience Q&A: managing post-close autonomy flips in integration [43:03] Audience Q&A: sudden integration direction changes from leadership [45:59] Biggest value leaks in M&A integration [48:11] The case for pre-mortems and post-mortems

    51 min

  4. May 14

    Partner Before You Buy: The Pre-Acquisition Strategy Corp Dev Teams Skip

    Tomer Stavitsky is SVP and Chief Corporate Development Officer at Omnicell (NASDAQ: OMCL) Corp dev teams treat M&A and partnerships as separate tracks, but Tomer Stavitsky looks at them holistically. In this episode, he breaks down the partner-first approach: an acquisition framework for situations where the target isn't ready, the PE owner isn't selling, or your integration capacity isn't there. He walks us through structuring the partnership, keeping the acquisition thesis alive through execution, negotiating and defending a right of first refusal, and managing the three-way stakeholder dynamic without signaling the wrong things at the wrong time.   What You'll Learn When partner-first is the right call and when it isn't How to keep the acquisition thesis alive through the partnership execution phase Managing the three-way dynamic between target leadership, the PE owner, and your own organization How to negotiate a right of first refusal and what happens when it gets tested Why teams pull the trigger too early and how to protect the process from internal pressure Applying partner-first to AI-era targets without getting caught in the hype cycle If you're working through a partner-first deal, the M&A Science membership has frameworks and tools built for exactly this kind of situation. Learn more at mascience.com/membership. ____________________ This episode is sponsored by DealRoom DealRoom's Buyer-Led M&A™ Summit is Back! Join me at the summit on May 20, a free virtual event hosted by DealRoom covering AI, pipeline, diligence, and integration across the deal lifecycle. Sessions run 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM ET.  Register here. ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:00] Introduction: Tomer Stavitsky's Background and the End-to-End Corp Dev View [08:04] Building or Rebuilding a Corp Dev Function [16:01] What Is the Partner-First Approach and When Does It Apply [21:10] Mapping the Market and Deciding Who Stays on the Watch List [24:13] Managing Multiple Targets Without Over-Committing [27:48] Using Exclusivity as a Strategic and Protective Tool [35:00] Managing the Three-Party Dynamic: Target Leadership, PE Owner, and Your Own Org [37:58] The Real Story: How a Partnership Became an Acquisition (Including the Competitive ROFR Moment) [42:41] The Most Common Mistake in Converting a Partnership to an Acquisition [44:32] Applying Partner-First to AI-Era Targets [49:21] What's the Craziest Thing You've Seen in M&A?

    53 min

  5. May 7

    How M&A Turns a Chemical Company Into a Tech Business

    Chandradev Mehta, SVP Strategy and Business Development at Hexion Inc. Chandradev Mehta, SVP Strategy and Business Development at Hexion Inc., breaks down how a commodity chemical company uses M&A to transform into a technology-enabled, chemistry-as-a-service business. He covers the acquisition of an AI and MarTech company, the build vs. buy vs. partner decision framework, integration planning discipline, banker selection, small deal execution, and JV governance. What You'll Learn How to build a genuine build vs. buy vs. partner framework  and when each is right Why buying a commercialized or near-commercialized business changes your risk profile in ways that building from scratch can't (and never will) How Chandradev structures must-believes to maintain valuation discipline in competitive processes Why integration planning needs to start at IOI, not post-close What separates a banker worth your time from one running a numbers game Why small deals are frequently harder to execute than large ones (and how to protect against organizational deprioritization) How to negotiate JV governance before you need to unwind it ____________________ If you're building an M&A capability from scratch or trying to get your team aligned on deal fundamentals, the M&A Fundamentals Track on DealPilot covers the full deal life cycle in roughly five hours, including vocabulary, process, and both sides of the table. Access it when you become an M&A Science member. ____________________ This episode is sponsored by DealRoom DealRoom's Buyer-Led M&A™ Summit is Back! Join me at the summit on May 20, a free virtual event hosted by DealRoom covering AI, pipeline, diligence, and integration across the deal lifecycle. Sessions run 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM ET.  Register here: https://hubs.ly/Q0496h-s0 ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:00] Introduction [04:41] From Investment Banking to the Principal Side [10:24] Using M&A to Transform Hexion [11:01] Build vs. Buy vs. Partner Framework [16:42] What Chemistry as a Service Actually Means [23:43] Sourcing Deals: Push and Pull Model [26:24] What Makes a Banker Actually Useful [29:12] Valuation Discipline and Must-Believes [36:21] Environmental Risk in Chemical Deals [36:46] Why Small Deals Are Harder Than They Look [41:21] Joint Ventures: Negotiate the Divorce First [43:25] Execution Principles and Stakeholder Alignment [47:08] Getting Deals Actionable

    54 min

  6. Apr 30

    CPG Exit Strategy: How to Build a Consumer Brand Strategics Will Acquire | Keith Levy Part 2

    Keith Levy, Operating Partner at Sonoma Brands Capital Most consumer brand founders think about exit as an event. Keith Levy thinks about it as a design requirement. In the second of two episodes, Keith walks through what exit-ready actually looks like in CPG: the revenue and EBITDA thresholds that matter, why you have to get beyond the corp dev team to the operators who actually need what you're building, how capital gets wasted at every stage of a brand's lifecycle, and what the investments that produce exits have in common versus the ones that don't. If you missed the first episode, it covers Keith's five-pillar CPG diligence framework and the Touchland and Bachan's case studies. Start there. What You'll Learn What revenue and EBITDA thresholds a consumer brand needs to attract a strategic acquirer. Why getting to corp dev is not enough, and how to reach the operators who actually need your brand. How capital gets wasted at each stage of a CPG brand's lifecycle. Why execution is where most investments fail, not the idea or the founder. What the celebrity founder model got wrong, and why copying a formula that worked once rarely works twice. What the investments that produced exits at Sonoma Brands had in common. ____________________ If you're building a consumer brand toward exit or evaluating one for acquisition, DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, has the practitioner playbook for CPG exit positioning. Join at mascience.com/membership. Already a member? The bonus conversation with Keith is live now: boards, earnouts, and the hardest lessons from six years backing consumer brands. ____________________ This episode is sponsored by DealRoom DealRoom's Buyer-Led M&A™ Summit is Back! Join me at the summit on May 20, a free virtual event hosted by DealRoom covering AI, pipeline, diligence, and integration across the deal lifecycle. Sessions run 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM ET. Register here: https://hubs.ly/Q0496h-s0 ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:00:01] Intro [00:04:19] Day-to-day across 20+ portfolio companies [00:05:43] When to lean in and when to stay out [00:09:28] Pre-LOI landmines that kill deals early [00:13:26] The CPG brand lifecycle: from first check to exit [00:16:04] How capital needs change as a brand grows [00:20:15] Execution is why most investments fail [00:21:26] Capital allocation as the real test of a founder [00:23:00] What it takes to position a CPG brand for strategic exit [00:25:13] Big companies can't incubate brands — why that's your edge [00:26:23] Why you have to get beyond the corp dev team [00:29:48] What the investments that worked had in common [00:33:43] Why investments fall apart after you cut the check [00:35:16] The celebrity founder trap [00:39:16] How the Sonoma deal funnel actually works [00:45:22] What kills a deal at the investment committee stage

    58 min

  7. Apr 23

    CPG Due Diligence: The Operator Framework Behind a $1B Exit | Keith Levy Part 1

    Keith Levy, Operating Partner at Sonoma Brands Capital Keith Levy backed an exit of just under $1B  and a $400M exit using the same five-pillar framework, and he starts with the founder every time. Finance comes last. As Operating Partner at Sonoma Brands Capital, Keith has spent six years evaluating consumer brands across food, beverage, pet food, snacks, and cosmetics. Before that he was CMO at Anheuser-Busch through the $52B InBev deal, president of Royal Canin USA for Mars, and the strategic acquirer who led the Kind acquisition at Mars Wrigley. He knows what the data room doesn't show you, and this conversation is built around that gap. The first of two episodes covers the full five-pillar CPG diligence framework and the Touchland and Boon's case studies. The second episode, out the following week, covers CPG brand lifecycle, exit positioning, and capital allocation.   What You'll Learn Why the founder evaluation comes before the financials. How to read product-market fit the way an operator does, not a financial analyst. What a credible go-to-market strategy looks like vs. one that crashes in execution. Why supply chain control is now a diligence requirement, not an afterthought. How to get the right operators inside a strategic acquirer interested before a banker calls. The Touchland case study: under $1B exit in less than two years The Bachan's Japanese BBQ sauce case study: ($400M) exit with McCormick at the table. ____________________ If you evaluate consumer brand investments and want a framework for the risks the model won't surface, DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, has the practitioner playbook. Join at mascience.com/membership.   Already a member? The bonus conversation with Keith is live now: boards, earnouts, and the hardest lessons from six years backing consumer brands, exclusively for M&A Science members. ____________________ This episode is sponsored by DealRoom DealMax starts Monday. Find us at the Aria DealRoom: Booth 109, M&A Science: Booth 208. Kison will be signing copies of Buyer-Led M&A all three days, and we've got a candy bar and swag worth stopping for. Then, join us monday night for a happy hour, RSVP here: https://hubs.ly/Q043VnNH0 ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:00:00] Intro [00:02:02] Keith's background overview (24 years at AB, $52B InBev deal – narrated) [00:05:40] Running Royal Canin and joining Mars / Mars Wrigley [00:08:45] Why Mars acquired Kind [00:09:15] What is Sonoma Brands and how Keith got there [00:10:17] The Budweiser CMO era & favorite ads [00:15:12] The Mars / Wrigley China integration [00:23:15] How Sonoma Brands evolved from venture to growth equity [00:25:11] Why deals don't work and what Sonoma changed [00:27:12] The Keith Levy CPG diligence framework [00:30:04] How to evaluate a founder [00:35:40] What product‑market fit actually looks like [00:38:32]  Touchland: under $1B exit in two years [00:39:05] Go‑to‑market: sequencing channels & steady growth [00:41:10] Why TAM is just a sniff test [00:43:31] Why how you make the product matters more than you think [00:47:08] The real value an operating partner brings

    54 min

  8. Apr 16

    400 Acquisitions and a Failed Process: What Happens When You Don't Integrate

    Matt James, EVP, CFO & Chief Acquisition Officer at Oakbridge Insurance Roll-up platforms that skipped real integration are getting exposed when they go to market. Buyers want proof of organic growth, clean data, and a platform that actually functions as one. A lot of processes are breaking down because those proof points aren't there. Matt James co-founded Oakbridge Insurance in 2020 and has since closed 60+ acquisitions, integrating 100% from day of close. This conversation covers how he built that system, what went wrong with billion-dollar competitors, and what he would fix first if he walked into a revenue-aggregating roll-up right now.  What You'll Learn Why multiple arbitrage is gone, and what buyers are scrutinizing instead How Oakbridge evaluates cultural fit before any financial criteria What a failed billion-dollar roll-up sale process looks like from the inside Building integration continuity from LOI through 90 days post-close How distributed equity drives buy-in across an acquired organization  If you're evaluating targets and want to know if they're integration-ready pre-LOI, the Intelligence Hub can help you score cultural fit, data readiness, and technology maturity. Join the professional membership at  mascience.com/membership. ____________________ This episode is sponsored by DealRoom DealRoom's State of M&A Report gives you data to back up your M&A priorities. The State of M&A Report reveals the gap between what teams think matters and where the real bottlenecks are. Download it now to get expert insights: https://hubs.ly/Q03ZxRvD0 ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:03:00]  Introduction & Matt's Background [00:05:00] How Buyer Diligence Has Shifted [00:06:00] Organic vs. Inorganic Growth and Why It Matters [00:11:00] The Four-Criteria Deal Evaluation Framework [00:14:00] Validating Cultural Fit Before LOI [00:17:00] Deal Structure: Equity, Earnouts, and Alignment [00:20:00] What Billion-Dollar Platforms Got Wrong [00:26:00]Building the Integration System at Oakbridge [00:31:00] Bridging Diligence and Integration [00:38:00] Data Infrastructure: Databricks, Power BI, and Why It's Worth It [00:45:00] Building Proprietary Deal Flow [00:52:00] First Moves When Integration Is Broken

    58 min
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4.9
out of 5
135 Ratings

About

M&A Science, hosted by Kison Patel (Founder & CEO of DealRoom), is your go-to podcast for mastering the art of mergers and acquisitions. Each week, Kison and his expert guests from leading brands like Xerox, FastLap, and Cisco dig deep into real-world M&A strategies, offering actionable insights to optimize your M&A practice. Whether you're an experienced practitioner or new to the field, M&A Science provides practical advice on key topics like sourcing, due diligence, integration, divestitures, and more. With over 300 episodes, this podcast is the premier thought leadership resource designed to streamline your deal-making process. Start listening today and visit mascience.com/podcast to access over 300 episodes. Brought to you by DealRoom, the leading M&A optimization platform used by the best M&A teams around the world

Information

  • Creator
    Kison Patel
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    418
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    M&A Science

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