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Capital & Advisory Division 08 of 10
Buy-side support from targetlist to first ninety days.
Acquisition thesis, target identification, financial analysis, transaction support, and integration planning for buyers acquiring in technology retail and distribution.
Most acquisitions are not lost in the negotiation. They are lost in the ninety days after it.
The price was defensible, the diligence was thorough, and then two managers left, the supply terms turned out to be personal to the founder, and the systems never merged. None of that was a valuation error. It was an integration plan that did not exist until it was needed.
Connex works buy-side only, and the integration plan is part of the mandate rather than an upsell after completion. We would rather talk a client out of a target at analysis stage than be paid for a transaction that does not survive its first quarter.
Capabilities
What the division does.
Acquisition thesis
What you are buying and why — capability, footprint, capacity, or earnings — written down before any target is approached.
Target identification
Structured search against the thesis, including businesses that are not openly for sale.
Financial analysis
Earnings quality, margin structure, working capital, customer and supplier concentration, and the adjustments that matter.
Structure and terms
Price, structure, earn-outs, warranties, escrow, and the conditions that protect you between signing and completion.
Transaction coordination
Legal, accounting, and lender workstreams coordinated to one timeline so the deal does not stall between advisers.
Integration and first ninety days
Systems, staff, supply terms, and reporting mapped before completion, with a dated plan for the first quarter.
Process
Five stages, each with an output you can see.
Thesis
Acquisition criteria defined and written down, including what would make a target a decline rather than a negotiation.
Sourcing
Structured search and approach, including off-market targets, with a shortlist against the thesis.
Analysis
Earnings quality, concentration, working capital, and risk assessed, with a recommendation that can be a no.
Negotiation
Structure, price, and protective conditions agreed, with legal and lender workstreams coordinated to the same timeline.
Integration
Dated first-ninety-day plan covering systems, staff, supply terms, and reporting, handed to your team at completion.
Mandate standard
Buy-side only, and the recommendation can be a decline.
We do not take a fee from the other side of a transaction we are advising on, and we do not carry a sell-side mandate on the same target. Our analysis stage ends in a recommendation that is allowed to be no. A fee structure that only pays on completion produces advice that only points one way, which is why ours does not work that way.
Commercial terms
Published, not withheld.
| Term | Standard position | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mandate | Scoped in writing before work starts | Thesis and decline criteria agreed at the outset. |
| Exclusivity | Sector and geography defined | We will not run a competing buy-side mandate inside it. |
| Fee structure | Retainer plus completion element | Retainer is not contingent, so the analysis is not either. |
| Conflicts | Declared before engagement | No undisclosed sell-side interest in any target we present. |
| Deliverables | Thesis, shortlist, analysis, integration plan | All delivered to you and retained by you. |
| Confidentiality | Mutual NDA before target discussion | Off-market approaches made without naming you until agreed. |
FAQ
Questions buyers actually ask.
No. Most mandates involve off-market targets identified against your thesis. Our own listings are disclosed as ours when they appear on a shortlist.
The discipline is the same at most sizes; the constraint is whether the target can support a real diligence process. We say at the outset if we think it cannot.
That is what the analysis stage is for, and the retainer is structured so that answer costs us nothing to give.
We coordinate lender workstreams and make introductions. We are not a broker and we do not take a fee from lenders.
Systems and data migration, staff and retention risk, supply and customer contracts that may be personal to the seller, reporting, and a dated sequence for the first quarter.
Works with
Advisory clients typically also use:
Wireless Store Acquisitions
Single-location transactions where the marketplace and the diligence sit in one place.
Explore →Retail Consulting
Instrument the acquired business in the first quarter rather than the second year.
Explore →Wholesale Distribution
Reset supply terms after completion instead of inheriting the seller's arrangements.
Explore →Have a thesis, or need one?
Sector, size, and what you are trying to acquire capability in is enough for a first conversation.