tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49986111791403401752009-02-24T05:47:03.779-06:00Business development tips, advice, and observations including mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, divestitures, and strategic partnerships. © <a href="http://andrewgreta.com">Andrew Greta</a> 2008Andrew Gretahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11879351060145385366noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4998611179140340175.post-54204566517428104772009-01-22T07:34:00.002-06:002009-01-22T07:42:56.218-06:00

Get a sneak peek at an upcoming article in the February issue of Stocks, Futures & Options (SFO) Magazine on the present and futre of international market access.www.sfomag.com

Andrew Gretahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11879351060145385366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4998611179140340175.post-79953922397521253472008-12-29T07:39:00.008-06:002009-01-22T07:46:46.385-06:00

Here's another piece from the archives providing a basic primer on EVA (a performance metric that calculates the creation of shareholder wealth as opposed to accounting income). While the translation from GAAP accounting to the language of value creation can be tricky, EVA targets the heart of fundamental value creation which is the key to successful long-term sustainable business development

Andrew Gretahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11879351060145385366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4998611179140340175.post-38796963793835005152008-12-19T16:26:00.005-06:002008-12-19T16:42:31.881-06:00

I recently came across the "farewell" piece I wrote for TheStreet.com as I gave up my Contributing Editorship to pursue the finance side of the business as a full-time career in 1999. During the height of the Dot-Boom I rang the warning bells of a bad storm a-rising as a parting shot to the market "geniuses" who couldn't go wrong -- then spent and leveraged accordingly. Now at the end of what

Andrew Gretahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11879351060145385366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4998611179140340175.post-33214516069545426342008-09-05T13:50:00.005-05:002008-09-06T08:12:13.830-05:00

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Andrew Gretahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11879351060145385366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4998611179140340175.post-72159116849806276402008-08-18T16:14:00.004-05:002008-08-18T16:22:57.284-05:00

Valuation Overview: One of the central questions of business development is “how much should I pay” for a business acquisition, partnership, asset, or piece of intellectual property. The answer isn’t something you can boil down to a one-size-fits-all computer model (a fact which keeps us BD professionals gainfully employed). But what’s always true is you’ll need to pay more than the stand-alone

Andrew Gretahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11879351060145385366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4998611179140340175.post-29233585785168753302008-07-20T09:46:00.008-05:002008-07-24T10:19:21.203-05:00

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Andrew Gretahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11879351060145385366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4998611179140340175.post-14067908214273567572008-07-10T15:13:00.009-05:002008-07-10T16:15:46.505-05:00

Once corporate strategy identifies a new industry or market with attractive fundamentals for the business, M&A jocks often mount up the I-Banker safari wagon, lock & load the elephant gun, and roll off into the Serengeti in a cloud of dust to bag the next big acquisition. While M&A is often the cornerstone of a good business development function, outright acquisitions aren’t always the best path

Andrew Gretahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11879351060145385366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4998611179140340175.post-6136624716677818772008-07-09T11:04:00.005-05:002008-07-09T11:07:13.977-05:00

According to Reuters, merger activity in the United States dropped 29 percent in the second quarter as financial deals driven by leveraged private equity shops dried up from lack of lender liquidity. Meanwhile, strategic investors are seeing opportunities to snap up cheap assets, bidding for stalwart consumer staples like Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc (BUD) and Wm. Wrigley Jr Co (WWY). But what’s this

Andrew Gretahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11879351060145385366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4998611179140340175.post-51124734749134153402008-07-07T12:04:00.006-05:002008-07-08T10:45:19.765-05:00

A former divisional CEO at GE liked to tell a story about the time he sat next to a dot-com entrepreneur on a commercial flight during the height of the internet bubble. After listening to the budding cyber king babble excitedly for ten minutes about his site’s explosive growth trajectory of “eyeballs”, hits, and click-throughs funded by an incineration of adventure-capital, my boss finally asked

Andrew Gretahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11879351060145385366noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4998611179140340175.post-53841547877761437742008-07-01T10:02:00.005-05:002008-07-01T10:11:05.953-05:00

Some business development departments are no better than a troop of enthusiastic Boy Scouts tromping through the woods firing slingshots at whatever hapless critter crosses their path. From the self-styled wheeler-dealer who gets a suspender-slapping kick out of playing company big shot, to the incompetent functionary who think M&A is sexy but lack the skills, knowledge, and training to deal

Andrew Gretahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11879351060145385366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4998611179140340175.post-57452972119818183942008-06-30T13:01:00.001-05:002008-06-30T13:03:08.214-05:00

Imagine taking a fine summer walk in the rolling countryside and coming across a landscaper digging trenches with a hammer while a nearby carpenter drives nails into two-by-fours with a shovel. Sweaty brows reveal each worker’s struggle to produce results and monetize their core talent while severely handicapped by the tools each has at their disposal. Output is low in our little micro-economy

Andrew Gretahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11879351060145385366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4998611179140340175.post-32667459481628579362008-06-29T11:31:00.000-05:002008-06-29T11:39:51.048-05:00

The term business development (or “BD”) means different things to different organizations. For human resource departments reluctant to saddle their highly compensated rainmakers with the same moniker employed by encyclopedia peddlers and car lot attendants, BD means “sales” – landing new business from new customers. For others, BD is synonymous with “account management” – generating new and

Andrew Gretahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11879351060145385366noreply@blogger.com0