The Cambridge Group advises corporate and private equity clients on creating value through acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic investments and alliances. We go beyond market data and trends to provide deep, proprietary insights regarding alignment of potential acquisition targets to highly profitable pockets of unmet demand.

Through our demand-led, data-driven process, we support our clients across the deal lifecycle. We synthesize the fact base, analyses and insights required to assess the market, define rigorous target selection criteria, identify the most attractive targets and quantify the most profitable value creation opportunities.

Questions we answer:

• What role should acquisitions, ventures and alliances play in helping us achieve our long-term growth strategy?
• What is the likely future business trajectory of key industries, markets and potential target companies?
• Which markets, categories, and capabilities should we prioritize within our M&A strategy?
• Which criteria should we use to identify, assess and select potential candidates for acquisition, ventures, strategic investments and alliances?
• How is each potential acquisition target differentiated from the perspective of their customers?
• Which companies best fit our target screening criteria?
• How can we best create value post-acquisition?
• What is the investment thesis for potential deals, and how profitable are they likely to be?

Target identification

Faced with a multitude of investment options, our clients seek a clear understanding of the most attractive candidates for acquisitions, ventures and partnerships. We help our clients determine the most attractive markets, categories and capabilities to invest in, defining specific acquisition target screening criteria. We combine proprietary market data with customized primary research to create a robust, multi-dimensional assessment of priority markets and categories. We then identify, evaluate and profile the most attractive acquisition targets, providing the client with an unmatched understanding of the landscape.

Revenue-side due diligence

We have extensive experience helping clients explore how potential deals will create value. We synthesize insights from a range of proprietary data sources to ensure investment decisions are informed by the best market data and analyses, as well as perspectives from industry experts, customers, suppliers and competitors. This helps validate critical assumptions of the investment thesis, shaping the deal strategy and providing confidence in constructing a winning price package.

Post-merger value creation

We help clients identify and capitalize on the most attractive opportunities to create value post-acquisition. We take an outside-in approach to look at the business through the eyes of the customer, uncovering and quantifying areas of unmet customer demand as well as revenue synergies, to ensure clients have a robust agenda to create and capture value from Day One.