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Mergers and Acquisitions Playbook

A corporate-development skill that disciplines M&A thinking from deal thesis and target screening through valuation, diligence, and integration planning.

Docs & OfficeAdvanced★ 2,032⑂ 316AI score 8/10Last updated: Sep 17, 2026

What it does

  • Thesis first: forces a written thesis before any target is considered — what buying gets you that building or partnering cannot — and flags the common bad theses (growth for its own sake, defensive panic, the target just became available).
  • Screening: scores candidates against the thesis rather than against how impressive they look, and pulls cultural/operating-model fit forward instead of leaving it as a soft afterthought.
  • Valuation framing: separates what the target is worth to you from what you would pay, stress-tests the deal with revenue synergies set to zero, and locks a binding walk-away price before negotiation.
  • Diligence: frames diligence as falsifying the thesis, with the usually-skipped questions — customer concentration, key-person retention at close, transferring liabilities, undocumented infrastructure and contracts.
  • Integration: decided pre-signing — what integrates, what stays separate, who runs it, and the first hundred days.

It explicitly states it does not replace legal, tax, or accounting advisers.

Who it's for

  • Founders and executives considering an acquisition or fielding an inbound offer
  • Corporate development, strategy, and PE/VC deal teams
  • Anyone judging build-versus-buy at company scale or reviewing a diligence/PMI plan

Examples

  1. "We're looking at acquiring competitor A — draft the deal thesis and attack its weakest assumption."
  2. "Reframe this model with revenue synergies at zero and help me set a defensible walk-away price."
  3. "Build a diligence checklist focused on customer concentration and key-person risk at close."

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cbrock84/headcount/HEAD/plugins/corporate-strategy/skills/mergers-and-acquisitions/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
  1. Download the ZIP with the button below.
  2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
  3. Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
↓ Download ZIP
Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart.
Copy the plugins/corporate-strategy/skills/mergers-and-acquisitions folder from the GitHub repo cbrock84/headcount into my ~/.claude/skills/mergers-and-acquisitions/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/cbrock84/headcount.git && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r headcount/plugins/corporate-strategy/skills/mergers-and-acquisitions ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

  1. Open a terminal (macOS: Terminal; Windows: PowerShell or WSL).
  2. Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/cbrock84/headcount.git
  3. Create the skills directory: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
  4. Copy the skill: cp -r headcount/plugins/corporate-strategy/skills/mergers-and-acquisitions ~/.claude/skills/
  5. Confirm ~/.claude/skills/mergers-and-acquisitions/SKILL.md exists and that references/sources.md came with it (the citation rule is meaningless without it).
  6. Restart Claude Code and try: "We're evaluating an acquisition — help me write the deal thesis."
View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT