ALL MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS PROVIDE COMPETITORS OPPORTUNITIES TO GAIN CUSTOMERS, REVENUES, AND MARKET SHARE!
How serious and damaging these losses are depends largely on how well anticipated they are. When these losses are inadequately anticipated, merging and acquiring companies run into serious problems, yet most mergers and acquisitions still suffer from lower revenues than expected. Part of the reason for this is that there has been very little study of customer reactions to mergers, and almost no attention paid to competitive response by rivals of the merging company.
We understand customers and competitors of merging companies!
David T. Bastien published the first-ever scientific study of customer reactions and market dynamics of mergers and acquisitions, and has since written extensively about why and how customers become alienated and how competitive rivals take advantage of it. In Corporate Judo , he has identified the fundamental competitive dynamics that allow rivals of a merging company to maximize the huge opportunities an M/A presents. His work on acquisition customers and competitors has been covered by USA Today, Gannett News Services, FNN, AP Network News, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Twin Cities Business Monthly, Potentials in Marketing, and other media outlets.
Opportunities to get customers (and revenues) from the rival’s acquisition come in waves:
- some customers react negatively to the simple announcement of the merger of a vendor, resulting in the first wave of customer (and revenue) opportunities.
- the operational and strategic changes upon which a merger is predicated often cause some customers to change vendors, resulting in a second wave of customer (and revenue) opportunities.
- the process of actually implementing the organizational integration process often results in a descending cycle of customer disaffection with the merging rival, resulting in a third wave of customer (and revenue) opportunities –– this can be the biggest wave, and is rarely anticipated by the merging rival.
Forecasting post-acquisition revenue downturns and customer alienation in the merging rival:
Our instrumentation forecasts, wave by wave, customer alienation in all sorts of market conditions and with all types of integration scenarios. Our instrumentation also uncover how rivals of the merging companies can position themselves to take advantage of customer disaffection.
Helping companies whose rivals are merging or being acquired to take maximum advantage of the opportunities:
We have also developed the sophisticated and effective consulting tools and programs to help maximize the opportunities a rival’s acquisition present:
- identify which customers are likely to become disaffected with the acquired competitor
- identify what issues drive customers away from the merging company
- attract new customers from the merging companies
- take advantage of employee dissatisfaction stemming from customer problems