12 key lessons about tech M&A – from Cisco

12 key lessons about tech M&A – from Cisco

John Chambers, Chairman Emeritus of Cisco, has done over  acquisitions in his time and shares some tips – 12 lessons:

1. 1. M&As Are A Vaccine Against Irrelevance: No company can discover everything available to be discovered, hence even the largest tech companies need to buy in some startups or partner with them.
2. 2. Tech Is Ubiquitous: ‘Every company you’ll acquire over this next decade will probably be indirectly or directly a tech company’, said Chambers.
3. Your Customers Can Tell You What To Buy: Listen to your customers and pay special to market transitions and advances to find the next generation products to buy into.
4. Pick The Right Match: “When you buy a company, everything is negotiable except strategy and culture”, said Chambers. Acquisitions can fail for many reasons so pay attention to smooth integration.
5. Build Your Playbook(s): In the past tech M&A often failed. There are good reasons for this. Analyse past failures and past successes and see what makes an M&A deal a failure or success.

His latest message for large corporations is an alarm bell. In a fireside chat at the HAX M&A Masterclass that followed the publication of his book: Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Startup World, Chambers issued a clear warning: learn about tech M&As or the future might happen without you.

The full article is available here.