M&A – Deal Structures & Strategies
Articles
What Are M&A Synergies? Revenue vs. Cost Synergies Explained
A clear breakdown of revenue and cost synergies in M&A, why interviewers care, and why cost synergies are trusted more than revenue synergies.
How to Calculate M&A Synergies in an Interview (Step-by-Step)
A step-by-step method for calculating risk-adjusted, phased M&A synergies — the approach interviewers expect in valuation and M&A cases.
Cash vs. Stock Deal: What's the Difference for Sellers?
A clear breakdown of how cash and stock consideration differ in M&A — tax treatment, ongoing risk, and what each choice signals about the buyer's conviction.
How to Answer 'Cash or Stock?' in an M&A Interview
How to structure an answer when an interviewer asks how you'd advise a client on cash vs. stock consideration in an M&A deal, with the framework and numbers to back it up.
Cases
Synergy Case: Revenue and Cost
As an M&A analyst working on a merger between two companies, you have been asked to quantify the deal's revenue and cost synergies, build a realistic multi-year timeline for capturing them, apply probability-weighting to reflect execution risk, and phase the value into the combined company's financial plan.
Cash vs. Stock Consideration
As an M&A analyst advising the board of the target company, you are tasked with comparing what the seller actually receives — and how much risk they retain — under a cash offer versus a stock offer for the same $400 million headline price.