For buyers of a business or anyone involved in any phase of the due diligence process, Gordon Bing provides a unique, comprehensive, one-volume source of information and guidance. His book will help investors research, evaluate, and understand an existing or proposed business not only from a financial standpoint, but also from equally important nonfinancial standpoints. It provides a full explanation of the due diligence process, including systematic methods to determine the information you need, why you need it, and how to get it. Keyed to each topic, chapter by chapter, is a full list of specific questions that should be asked during due diligence proceedings to be studied beforehand and carried with you as a valuable on-the-spot reference. A unique, practical resource for professionals and a hands-on text for students in business schools and upper division undergraduate courses in mergers and acquisitions.

Businesses are complex institutions consisting of many interrelated functions and activities. Potential acquirers or investors must be able to identify, understand, and evaluate the pros and cons of each aspect of their investment as efficiently as possible. But few individuals have the background or could even remember all the possible questions that could be asked, along with how to ask them in the appropriate manner. This book fills that gap by providing a proven, systematic approach to performing due diligence, along with a comprehensive list of possible questions.

To write the book, I conducted an extensive study of how corporations, professionals, and investors actually perform due diligence. I also applied myself to the task of gathering every relevant question that should be asked, and every necessary document that would be needed in performing adequate due diligence.

It became clear to me that most due diligence conducted today is cursory and inadequate, and largely overlooks critical areas, especially in non- financial matters. We see daily evidence of this in the business press in the form of failed acquisitions, initial public offerings with collapsed prices, loans in default and investment scandals. Most of these events can be connected, some of them directly, to the due diligence (or lack of it) performed by investors.

The result of my research is the longest and most comprehensive list of questions and relevant information ever developed for publication. Although I have drawn some of the relevant questions from my reviews of other checklists used privately in mergers and acquisitions, most of them come from years of experience in gathering these questions and refining them through actual practice.

Serious consequences can result from the failure to perform due diligence.