[Sean Mullin]

Has anyone found any particular areas of the company(ies) to struggle with post merger integration vs. those that excel (example: IT and operations seem to struggle where finance did not). Why and what drove the end result – departmental culture, complexity, IMO leads, etc.?

[Ian Smith]

I see a lot of success story’s coming from seasoned acquirer’s – it is rare that everything goes to plan when it is a first for the buyer or seller or both.
A lot of the time it is culture, protection of ego, hubris and fear of change that affects adversely the success of a merger. Things get left behind too during DD due to lack of expertise.
This can be a factor too when people who have done many mergers or mistake scale to be the same as complexity and get complacent.

[Abhijit Dutta]

I think integration of each line function brings in its own set of operational challenges to deal with during integration. However I see cultural mismatch, communication gap and lack of clarity on deal objective as the major reasons why companies struggle during post merger integration phase.

[Erin Gray]

For my company, our Accounting department struggled the most due to the target company using different accounting methods and programs.

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