Introduction

In this section, we demonstrate how to model a merger of two public companies in Excel. Each topic contains a spreadsheet with which you can interact within your browser to inspect cell equations and read comments, or download and open in Excel. This is a very detailed M&A model, loaded with bells and whistles and built using “best-practices” for financial modeling, that should address most of the M&A situations you may encounter. However, it is not intended as a template for modeling all M&A transactions; just like snowflakes, no two deals are alike. The topics in this section are presented in sequential order, as if you were building the model from scratch, but you are welcome to skip to any page that fulfills your particular education needs.

Below some spreadsheets, we provide Excel tips and keyboard shortcuts/keystrokes that highlight best practices for financial modeling or provide instruction on how to perform specific tasks within Excel.

Since our focus in this section is on modeling, we will not necessarily cover the accounting rules and regulations, and theories governing each topic. For most topics, you can find more detailed background information elsewhere on this website.

If you have ideas on how to improve this section on M&A modeling, don’t hesitate to provide some feedback.