Making M&A a Core Competency

Abstract

For many companies, transactions involving acquisitions and dispositions of businesses (commonly referred to as mergers and acquisitions or M&A transactions) are extraordinary events that occur infrequently and require no in-house M&A expertise. These companies may rely exclusively on outside counsel to handle the legal aspects of the M&A transaction. However, for acquisitive companies, such as j2 Global, M&A transactions are ordinary and frequent. For these companies, the in-house legal team can provide both tangible cost savings and intangible value by handling much of the M&A-related legal work internally rather than having it handled by outside counsel. In an age of ever increasing pressure for the in-house legal department to deploy corporate assets efficiently, this provides an opportunity to demonstrate hard dollar cost savings on a recurring basis. Most important, the cost savings and intangible benefits in-house counsel brings to the deal is in the shareholders’ best interests, as it preserves limited corporate resources while increasing the odds of achieving the long-term transaction goals.