After you successfully acquire a company, you have to integrate it into your operations. Integrating acquisitions can be challenging; successful integration involves merging several aspects of the companies. Some considerations for successfully combining an acquired company with a parent company include the following:
Product mix: One of the first integration considerations for Buyer is dealing with the product and service offers of the acquired company and the parent company. Some acquirers largely leave the product mix alone, while others will cut (and perhaps sell off) various products due to customer overlap, low quality, low sales volume, or simply because the product doesn't fit with Buyer's vision for the combined companies.
Operations: One of the key reasons to make acquisitions is to realize costs savings in operations. An acquisition can mean Buyer is able to negotiate better terms with vendors and banks, condense operations into fewer locations, and institute improved accounting and inventory standards at the acquired company.
Personnel: After a deal closes, Buyer has difficult decisions to make about the personnel at the acquired company, including whether to retain the management team or insert her own team to run the acquired company. Buyers may be able to realize savings by eliminating duplicate positions.
Personnel decisions are sensitive issues, so handle them with compassion.
