Colin Earl, CEO, Agiloft

Mergers and acquisitions are for risk-takers, particularly when you consider that 83% of them fail to boost shareholder returns.[1] Despite these odds, M&A continues to appeal to companies of all stripes as offering the most direct path to achieving long-term strategy. The enduring siren song of M&A has generated troves of studies to identify why the failure rate is so high. The common culprits are differences in corporate culture and business systems. Collectively, these determine how a company does business.