It sounds cold to say so, but earthquakes mean work for architects, carpenters and plumbers. Likewise, the tectonic shifts now reshaping the world of finance are creating opportunities for some folks. Bankruptcy and restructuring experts are one group that's obviously going to be busy for a while. Another such group are the folks with deep knowledge of how to do post-merger integration in financial services.
Think about it. Even Bank of America Corp., an acquisition machine if ever there was one, is going to have its hands more than full. It's planning to absorb Merrill Lynch & Co. even as it continues to integrate Countrywide Financial and LaSalle Bancorp.
Barclay plc's purchase of Lehman's investment bank and maybe other pieces of Lehman is another huge effort. Multiple units of American International Group Inc., the insurance giant the Feds rescued Tuesday night, will be going on the block, and buyers will need to integrate them. And by
many reckonings the wave of consolidation is going to build, perhaps involving even Goldman, Sachs & Co, and Morgan Stanley -- to say nothing of financial institutions in the U.K. and elsewhere around the world.
Many of these financial companies are experienced acquirers with in-house talent, and of course the major consulting firms have done plenty of work on previous financial services deals. But given the pace of the current consolidation, it seems likely that specialists in everything from IT integration to organizational design to human resources to cross-border regulatory issues could be in short supply.
Take a single subproject as an example. Just the work of repositioning the Merrill brand alongside that of Bank of America -- an effort involving advertising, marketing, customer relationships and much more -- has the scope to make it a business school case study. And that's only the high-profile part of a single integration.
The architects -- the business strategists and regulators -- may still be sketching the designs as fast as they can. But you can bet that the phones are already ringing for the plumbers and carpenters. -
Kenneth Klee
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I agree wholeheartedly with Ken Klee's article regarding post-merger integration experts being in high demand right now because of the chaos occurring on Wall Street. TX2 Systems is seeing an influx of inquiries regarding our technology that helps companies better manage and streamline the post-merger integration process. The inquiries are not reserved to financial service companies though. The companies that are reaching out to TX2 have imminent deals that will be transformational to their companies. Secondly, we are hearing from advisory firms as well that are being retained to help with the post-merger integration process. Our increased activity as a software company supporting post-merger integrations is proof that this type of work is increasing thus requiring PMI experts to be in high demand. JT