Key takeaways:

• Only about one in three acquirers fully achieve their deal thesis objectives. The value gap is a decision gap: the gap opens when the acquirer fails to translate the thesis into the specific choices that determine how the combined company operates.
• Successful acquirers were more likely to define thesis-relevant operating-model elements before close across every deal theme. The sharpest gap appears in revenue-acceleration transactions, where 71% of successful acquirers defined the relevant elements pre-close, compared with 44% of limited-success acquirers.
• Assign an owner, timeline, and funding to every value initiative before integration begins—successful acquirers do this at nearly twice the rate of limited-success acquirers (59% vs. 28%).
• Build a finance-validated system to separate realized value from forecasts—only 27% of limited-success acquirers are very confident their reported synergies are real and auditable, compared with 62% of successful acquirers.
• Conduct leadership and talent diligence before signing, not after close—despite seven in ten acquirers historically naming talent a top deal objective, only 16% actually assess leadership and talent pre-sign.