Playing at Acquisitions

This book presents some practical advice for firms and their investment bankers on how to `de-bias' their judgement when making merger and acquisition decisions. . . . Practitioners in mergers and acquisitions should certainly consider adding this book to their existing toolkit. ---David Butler, Economic Record Playing at Acquisitions enables practitioners to move beyond intuition-based acquisition decisions. It invites readers to explore a series of case studies and real-life examples and guides them through the novel tools that are available to them, as well as the advantages and pitfalls of their use. -P. M. Kort, Tilburg University Smit and Moraitis are the first to incorporate behavioral biases into a book for M&A practitioners. Accessible yet theoretically rigorous, Playing at Acquisitions subdivides complex strategies into manageable building blocks and illustrates concepts through an in-depth study of a successful multistage acquisitions strategy. Highly recommended for corporate strategists and M&A professionals. -Carliss Y. Baldwin, Harvard Business School This accessible book provides important tools to enrich existing valuation techniques and teaches how to deal with economic uncertainty, strategic interaction between economic agents, and behavioral biases. Playing at Acquisitions blends state-of-the-art academic insight with a wealth of practical experience and real-world intuition. -Bart Lambrecht, University of Cambridge This book brings together the best insights from strategy, corporate finance, and psychology to explore in a real, fine-grained, and practical way how to derive winning acquisition strategies using both real options and game theory to optimally time and leverage investments. It is a must-read for serious practitioners and those aiming to get into the game. -Dan Lovallo, University of California, Berkeley