Client

Global Educational Software Company

Project

M&A Analysis – Market Analysis, Acquisition Scouting, Due Diligence & Valuation

Executive Summary

The client is a national software firm seeking to grow through the acquisition of a company with complementary capabilities but lacked detailed information on potential acquisition candidates. Navigate was engaged to evaluate the software market, identify and qualify prospects, valuate high potential targets, and to make recommendations on a strategic acquisition.

Business Challenge

The client needed to find and engage acquisition targets with synergies that could be immediately capitalized. The client sought an acquisition candidate whose products could be quickly assimilated to augment their existing product portfolio. Navigate International was asked to perform due diligence on the targeted companies’ abilities to match the client’s strategic acquisition criteria. The client required extensive financial valuation of each prospect company to determine the financial health of the companies as well as to justify the cost of an acquisition. Many of the potential targets were small privately held companies, posing an additional challenge to the financial and operational analysis.

How Navigate International Helped

Navigate thoroughly examined the software sector and narrowed the pool of potential acquisition candidates to those with the most relevant capabilities. Navigate performed meticulous due diligence on the financials, marketing approach, operational strategies, market share and
market perceptions of each company based on secondary and primary information sources. Upon completion of the financial valuation, Navigate calculated the strategic benefits that would result from the acquisition of the target companies. Additionally, Navigate determined the openness of each target to an acquisition by conducting discreet interviews with company leadership.

Value Delivered

Navigate identified and qualified 15 private and 2 public companies over the course of 3 months. Upon the completion of a comprehensive acquisition scouting program, Navigate presented 2 candidates that were most appropriate for the client’s acquisition requirements. Ultimately, the client engaged in acquisition talks with one of the two companies.