M&A & Private Equity
Eight steps, from reading a balance sheet to the mechanics of a fund. Reading a chapter doesn't close a step. Building the model does. Each one gets written up here, dead ends included.
Disney-Pixar: Premium vs. Value Created
Where this started. A full merger analysis of the deal, built to answer one question: was the premium Disney paid worth what it bought?
Three-Statement Model from a 10-K
One real 10-K, one linked model, no template underneath it. The step is done when the balance sheet balances without me forcing it.
One Company, Three Valuations
DCF, trading comps, precedent transactions. Same company, three numbers that refuse to agree. The work is figuring out which assumption is doing the damage.
Rebuilding a Real LBO
Take a buyout that already happened and rebuild it from an empty sheet: debt schedule, cash sweep, returns. I’ll know it’s right when my IRR lands on the one the sponsor reported.
Quality of Earnings: Taking an EBITDA Apart
Reported EBITDA is a negotiated number. This step pulls one apart add-back by add-back, to see what is left over once the one-offs stop being one-offs.
Anatomy of a Sell-Side Process
What actually happens between the teaser and the signed agreement: the CIM, the management meetings, the bid rounds, and the way leverage shifts at each one.
A Turkish Deal, Read from the Filings
A Turkish transaction rebuilt from public disclosures alone. No press release, no banker summary. Just what the filings let you infer about price and structure, plus what they quietly leave out.
Capstone: The Full Buy-Side Memo
Everything above, in one document. A buy-side memo on a real target: what it is worth, what could go wrong, and whether I would actually put money into it.