M&A Conference at Cornell Tech New York City (Now Virtual)

October 28 & 29, 2020

This prestigious annual conference assembles corporate development leaders, in-house M&A counsel, board members, and private equity investors to discuss current challenges impacting complex transactions and learn about innovative methods to improve deal performance.

The cross-disciplinary agenda draws on experienced M&A professionals from various industries and regions to share first-hand experiences, best practices, and recommendations for navigating deals through both internal and external challenges.

This conference will be streamed live online in 2020.

See select past speakers

See pictures from last year

DAY ONE AGENDA: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2020

8:55am - 9:00am
Opening remarks: William Jefferson Black, Managing Director, Finance Information Group & Publisher, Transaction Advisors

9:00am - 9:50am
M&A strategy: repositioning transactions The opening keynote discussion will look at methods for allocating capital between core horizontal acquisitions and adjacent growth segments to respond to changes in consumer behavior, supply chains, and market dynamics.

10:00am - 10:50am
Strategic v. Private Equity: Competing on risk allocation and closing conditions This lively session will provide perspective on the techniques that are commonly employed by strategic acquirers to compete with private equity firms.

11:00am - 11:50am
Diligence methods: Growth forecasts This session will look at the challenging diligence obligations associated with demand sensing, product efficacy, and rapidly shifting industry dynamics. The participants will discuss the negotiation of specific deal terms that may be employed to address a range of diligence discoveries related to a target's value drivers.

12:00pm - 12:50pm
Human capital diligence: Financial risks This session will provide a detailed look at how effective dealmakers approach HR due diligence to identify people-related financial challenges and look at specific deal terms that may be employed to impact the future state operating model.

1:00pm - 1:50pm
Cross border joint ventures: Governance The participants will discuss board structures, management incentives, dispute resolution mechanisms, and other governance considerations.

2:00pm - 2:50pm
Negotiating risk allocation: Transactional insurance for tax liabilities This session will look at the increasing use of transaction insurance to address uncertainty around known, but uncertain, tax liabilities.

3:00pm - 3:50pm
Ask the M&A Leadership Council This interactive session will provide an opportunity for conference participants to ask members of the prestigious M&A Leadership Council questions on a range of deal-related topics.

DAY TWO AGENDA: THURSDAY OCTOBER 29, 2020

8:55am - 9:00am
Opening remarks: William Jefferson Black, Managing Director, Finance Information Group & Publisher, Transaction Advisors
Recognition of the M&A Leadership Council

9:00am - 9:50am
Global merger control and antitrust challenges: Nascent competition risk This session will provide guidance on the shifting environment for competition reviews in the United States, Europe, and other jurisdictions. The participants will comment on specific deal terms that anticipate protectionist views and antitrust challenges associated with nascent competition risk and the merits of negotiating prospective remedies or remaining silent.

10:00am - 10:50am
Developments in deal structuring: Working capital adjustments and closing conditions This discussion will examine current negotiation points and deal terms that may be employed to allocate risk and bridge gaps between buyers and sellers.

11:00am - 11:50am
Carveout transactions: Structuring divestitures This session will look at the strategic and operational considerations associated with divestiture transactions including specific guidance on the disposal process and unique considerations when financial pressure drives the transaction structure and timing.

12:00pm - 12:50pm
Keynote Interview

1:00pm - 1:50pm
Navigating regulatory hurdles: Avoiding closing delays The regulatory impact on timing to close will be considered in this session, which will look at specific deal terms, coordinating issues, and methods for balancing U.S. securities laws with changing and conflicting requirements in other jurisdictions.

2:00pm - 2:50pm
Integration and change management: Leadership retention This session will look at strategies for retaining an acquisition target's key team members, including the structure of financial incentives and retention agreements for key executives that align with critical cultural and performance objectives.

3:00pm - 3:50pm
Acquisition metrics and transaction communications The participants in this session will discuss current M&A dynamics and perceptions, while considering methods for addressing a wide range of stakeholder expectations on the merits and rationale for a transaction.

INNOVATION PARTNERS

The conference will feature a number of innovative technology and information platforms that are advancing the M&A practice.

M&A TECHNOLOGY DEMOS AND INFORMATION PLATFORMS

The conference will feature a number of M&A technology demos and information platforms from:

Intralinks provides an artificial intelligence-assisted platform to increase efficiency, reduce risk, and streamline the entire M&A process—from strategy and deal preparation through the due diligence process and post-merger Integration.
Black Duck is a software due diligence solution for M&A that specializes in code reviews for open source and internal compliance as well as security flaws in proprietary, open source, and other third-party software.
Knowable’s M&A offerings convert legal language into structured contract data. Their reliable portfolio-level reporting provides cross-functional stakeholders with actionable insights that improve deal outcomes.
TMF Group is a strategic global partner providing a comprehensive back office solution to ensure all local payroll, accounting, tax and compliance transition from the TSA correctly, dovetailing into the corporate back office processes.
Apperio is a legal spend tracking and analytics platform that provides complete clarity on legal spend in real-time.
Aviator is a cloud-based, full-service M&A tool that simplifies the planning process among workstream teams and provides visibility and reporting against workplans and financials.
Spend Analytics, powered by Accenture’s Applied Intelligence Platform, accelerates the identification of direct and indirect spend synergies by employing artificial intelligence to gather, consolidate, cleanse, categorize, and benchmark spend data.
OrgVue is an organization design and headcount reduction tool that visually compares current organization design to a future design state while capturing the value of operational process efficiencies.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

This program is for public-company corporate development and integration leaders, in-house M&A and securities counsel, chief financial officers, chief executive officers, board members, and private equity investors. This conference is not designed for advisors or service providers. The proceedings are closed to the media.

Conference attendees may be eligible for CLE and CPE