Support staff at a newly acquired company

December 21, 2023

by a searcher from Universidad de La Coruña in London, UK

My hypothesis is that most newly acquired companies won't have in place the support team that the incoming CEO might need to stay on top of things.

The newcomer CEO needs to absorb the role of the previous owner(s), learn about the company and the industry far beyond the DD analyses, and push the whole organization beyond the current inertia.

Does anyone have experience on hiring support staff (administrative assistant, chief of staff, business analysts...) for the CEO office right after acquisition? After a while? what went well? what could have gone better if?

Reply by a searcher
from California State University, Long Beach in Mexico City, CDMX, Mexico

Depends on the type of deal. If it's a turnkey operation, I agree with Alan Schechter, if it's a turnaround I disagree with Alan. As an acquirer I always brought my own support team with me which includes: expert operators, my own payroll company that I've known for over a decade, my book keeper, my attorney, and a team of analysts. Yes it would be great for the company to have it's own working support team but that's not always the case.

Reply by a professional
from University of California, Berkeley in Tampa, FL, USA

I disagree...as someone who has been involved in over $500M in acquisitions, the acquired company always has a support staff in place. How was the company able to function, prior to the acquisition, without a support staff in place?

The question is: how good is the support staff and are they worth keeping. For this you'll have to make an assessment of each individual, post-acauisition, and make changes accordingly.

+3 more replies.

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