Foley Attorneys on M&A Due Diligence – ‘Deals are starting to pick up’

Foley & Lardner LLP partners Louis Lehot and Eric Chow and senior counsel Blake Tengberg offer insight on due diligence in M&A transactions and the state of the market in the Utah Business article, “No Stone Unturned.”

Before a merger or acquisition can take place, companies must do their due diligence “to identify dealbreakers, assess risks, make informed decisions, negotiate effectively, ensure compliance, plan for integration, and set the stage for a successful and value-enhancing merger or acquisitions,” Lehot and Chow wrote in a 2023 blog quoted in the article.

Commenting on the state of the market in recent years, Tengberg noted that going into 2023, a lot of the deals that had gone through in 2021 and 2022 during a “frenetic market for sellers [and] companies raising capital” began to hit their 12- or 18-month period, where “numbers weren’t looking as rosy as the sellers or investors were wanting or were anticipating.”

As a result of the changing market, Tengberg said 2023 was a “slow year for mergers and acquisitions,” although he added that deals are starting to pick back up.