Tips for a More Efficient Merger, Part 1

Merging businesses is an age-old maneuver that helps businesses grow and compete in a saturated market. An acquisition can help a floundering business owner regain the money he or she invested in the business and then some, or it can help a large company grow even bigger while cutting out the competition at the same time. That said, just because mergers and acquisitions are normal in business does not mean that there is an easy way to go about them. Mergers take time, and business owners that fail to do their due diligence may find that they are on the losing end of the agreement. One aspect of the merger process that business owners should pay special attention to is the merger review process.

Ensuring an Efficient Investigation 

Businesses face several hurdles when attempting to complete a merger. One such hurdle is complying with data requests from whatever investigative agency is charged with approving the acquisition. Before a merger can be approved, either the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice will review the information presented by the company that proposed the merger in the first place. Not only must the data be complete, accurate, and relevant, but also, there is a certain way in which the business must go about presenting the requested information. Guidelines for data best practices can be found on the Federal Trade Commission’s website. Even when done right, the data collection and submission process can be lengthy and expensive; however, when done wrong, it is exponentially more so. Fortunately, there are some things that you can do to make the process as efficient and cost effective as possible.

For one, you can interact early on with the investigative agency. The goal of an early interaction is to determine what type of information will best serve the agency’s purposes, how suitable the existing information is for the agency’s purposes, how the data should be delivered, and in what form. Without an early interaction, businesses risk going through the lengthy data mining and reporting process once only to have to do it all over again.

In addition to interacting early on with the investigative agency, business owners should appoint a person or team of persons who will be responsible for communicating with the agency. This person or team should be knowledgeable on the information and be able to answer any question the agency throws his or her way regarding the merger. This person should also be prepared to maintain an open line of communication with the agency, as requests may change after the initial meeting.

Work With a Knowledgeable Business Litigation Lawyer 

Of course, there is much more to the merger and acquisition process than what we talked about above. We will continue discussing how you can make the merger review process more efficient in our next post, which will look at how your data should be organized and what information should be included to best assist the agency that is assisting you. To make the process as efficient as possible, retain the help of a Fort Lauderdale business litigation attorney. At the office of Edward J. Jennings, P.A., we are in the business of helping Florida businesses save time, money, and headache on common business issues. To schedule an appointment with one of our attorneys today, call our office or contact us online.

Resource:

ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-economics/best-practices