M & A UnAuthorized Opinions

Where has all the M & A work gone? Due to some market stresses there is a bit of a drought of M&A work. Don't get me wrong, big deals are still getting worked out, and there is still a backlog of work to get to but the path ahead seems a little bumpy. Part of that is likely because of the failures of previous M&A pieces of work by large consultancies. They seem to have chosen to be a bit too aggressive in winning deals and linking with the titans of private equity and not enough time on the back end of the deals making sure there work was profitable.

A year ago, six months ago, probably even three months ago more and more so-called Turn-around-executives were leaving cushy jobs to jump into consulting to land and work on the big fish. They either joined the big firms (unlikely) or they joined together (semi-likely) or they simply opened up their own shops and started selling their services at astronomical rates. Strategy is great, coming up with the ideas to save 3-4% or increase margins a percent or two is awesomely fun. The problem of course is that sometimes, those strategies don't pan out. Something that makes sense on paper, works out in various statistical scenarios just doesn't work in the real world. Furthermore a really great strategy consultant cannot be everywhere at the same time. They can take the helm, direct the ship but they can't cook in the galley and man the oars (or nets) at the same time.

Couple margin work with margins of error and increased interest rates and you have a number of companies, medium, large and gigantic struggling to pay down the debt that bought them out from under the public yoke.

Either way, I'd still love to get involved in a few more projects. Its just too bad they no longer want to pay our (recently raised) rates.