meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Acquired

Episode 18: Special—An Acquirer’s View into M&A with Taylor Barada, head of Corp Dev at Adobe

Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

Venturecapital, Ma, Investing, Acquisitions, Startups, Vc, Investment, Business, Technology

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2016

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ben & David are joined by special guest Taylor Barada, VP and Head of Corporate Development & Strategic Partnerships at Adobe, to discuss how large tech acquirers approach buying companies. This episode is full of great insights for startups & entrepreneurs who might find themselves navigating the M&A process, as well as anyone curious about the craft of dealmaking and the strategic approach of large acquirers.

Sponsors:
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta

Statsig: bit.ly/statsigacquired
Modern Treasury: https://bit.ly/acquiredmoderntreasury



Topics covered include:
  • How conversations begin between startups and acquirers
  • The importance of building a relationship with acquirers over time and "investing in lines, not dots” (just like raising VC)
  • The often under-appreciated role of culture fit between acquirers and acquisition targets
  • How entrepreneurs should evaluate acquirers throughout the M&A process
  • Two examples of successful acquisitions Taylor completed at Yahoo in Citizen Sports and IntoNow
  • The M&A process at large technology acquirers, from initial conversations to LOI, due diligence and the definitive merger agreement
  • The relative roles of Corp Dev, business/product owners and executive sponsors in the M&A process
  • Common mistakes startups (and VC’s) often make in the M&A process
  • Different “categories” of M&A that acquirers think about, and the relative risks & opportunities of “core" acquisitions vs transformative new businesses
  • What percentage of deals Adobe looks at actually happen, and the importance of being willing to say no
  • M&A as a tool for strategy, and the different M&A cultures & approaches at different companies
  • Tech themes Taylor and Adobe think about as part of their M&A strategy
  • Evaluating the longterm success of deals and the importance of the M&A integration function

Followups:

The Carve Out:

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

All right listeners, our sponsor is one of our favorite companies, Vanta, and we have something very new from them to share.

0:07.0

Of course, you know Vanta enables companies to generate more revenue by getting their compliance certifications.

0:12.8

That's SAC 2, ISO 2701.

0:15.7

But the thing that we want to share now

0:17.9

is Vanta has grown to become the best security compliance

0:21.4

platform as you hit hyper growth and scale into a larger enterprise.

0:26.9

It's kind of wild.

0:27.9

When we first started working with Vanta and met Christina, my gosh, I've had like a couple

0:31.6

hundred customers, maybe.

0:33.7

Now they've got 5,000, some of the largest companies out there, it's awesome.

0:38.3

Yeah, and they offer a tremendous amount of customization now for more complex security needs. So if you're a larger company and in the

0:45.2

past you showed Vanta to your compliance department you might have heard something like, oh well we've already got a compliance

0:50.4

process in place and we can't integrate this new thing.

0:53.0

But now, even if you already have a sock to,

0:56.0

Vanta makes maintaining your compliance even more efficient and robust.

1:00.0

They launched vendor risk management.

1:02.0

This allows your company to quickly understand the they launched vendor risk management.

1:02.6

This allows your company to quickly understand the security posture of the vendors

1:06.9

that you're choosing in a standardized way that cuts down on security review times.

1:11.3

This is great.

1:12.0

And then on the customization front they now also

1:14.4

enable custom frameworks built around your controls and policies. Of course that's

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.