Business Valuation and Mergers and Acquisitions Foundations

Most M&A deals destroy value. Not because the math is wrong, but because buyers overpay, synergies don't materialize, and integration fails. You can be different. This course teaches you to value companies honestly (DCF, comparables, and precedent transactions all tell different stories — learn to triangulate), understand what you're actually buying (stock sale vs. asset sale, earn-outs, reps and warranties), and spot the risks before they crater your deal (financial due diligence, legal land mines, talent flight, customer concentration). Whether you're analyzing a deal as a finance analyst, evaluating an acquisition for your company, structuring a sale, or exploring investment banking — you'll learn the frameworks that separate disciplined deals from disasters. We walk through complete M&A scenarios (why companies merge, how they're priced, what can go wrong, what makes integration succeed), but we're honest about the odds: cost synergies hit 70% of the time, revenue synergies hit 30% of the time, and the best financial planning gets derailed by culture and execution. By the end, you can: - **Value a company** using three independent methods and understand why valuations are ranges, not points - **Structure a deal** knowing who bears each risk (stock vs. asset, cash vs. stock, earn-outs) and what each choice costs - **Run due diligence** with focus (financial red flags, legal land mines, operational fragility, team flight risk) - **Plan integration** in a way that actually captures synergies instead of destroying them - **Recognize deal red flags** early — customer concentration, key-person risk, undisclosed litigation, regulatory trouble — and know when to walk away You'll ground this in real deal mechanics: how investment banks value companies, how PE sponsors engineer returns, how strategic buyers justify premiums, and where integration almost always disappoints. No spreadsheet gymnastics, no fake precision — just the honest analysis that protects shareholder value in the toughest deals. Prerequisite: basic financial literacy (comfortable with profit, cash flow, and balance sheets). This course assumes you've read an income statement before, but not that you've done a deal.