Integration-Led Diligence: Cisco's M&A Approach with Johanna Jaakola & Tesia Hostetle
Release Date: 10/27/2025
Building Your M&A Reputation: Why Relationships Beat Transactions Every Time with Andrew Cohen
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Andy Cohen, Vice President of Corporate Development at F5 Andy has built a career that proves M&A is fundamentally about relationships, not just transactions. With 30 years of experience and 60 deals closed across high-growth tech companies including Citrix, Acquia, and F5, Andy has cultivated the kind of reputation where every CEO he's worked with will take his call tomorrow. In this conversation, he reveals why zero-sum thinking kills deals, how to convince people to sell without convincing them to sell, and why walking away on principle matters more than closing at any cost. ...
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Integration-Led M&A: Cisco's Approach to Deal Success Part 2 with Johanna Jaakola and Tesia Hostetler
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– Integration Lead, Corporate Development Integration Team, Cisco – Leader, Acquisition Integration Practice, Cisco , Integration Lead on Cisco's Corporate Development Integration Team, and , Leader of Cisco's Acquisition Integration Practice, continue their deep dive into Cisco's integration-led M&A framework. In Part 2, they reveal how integration planning shapes diligence, how value drivers guide surgical execution, and what it takes to coordinate a 180-person M&A community. From day one employee experience to go-to-market complexity and the Splunk mega-deal, this episode...
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Integration-Led Diligence: Cisco's M&A Approach with Johanna Jaakola & Tesia Hostetle
M&A Science
– Integration Lead, Corporate Development Integration Team, Cisco – Leader, Acquisition Integration Practice, Cisco , Integration Lead on Cisco's Corporate Development Integration Team, and , Leader of Cisco's Acquisition Integration Practice, share how one of the world's most prolific acquirers structures deals for success. This episode breaks down Cisco's integration-led diligence model, where integration leads orchestrate due diligence from the deal thesis stage, ensuring strategic alignment and execution readiness before ink hits paper. Learn how Cisco's structured approach to...
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- Managing Partner and Founder, brings 29 years of private equity experience to this conversation about what actually works in buy-and-build strategies. After launching Brenton Point in 2024 following a 20-year run at CI Capital Partners, where he completed 200+ acquisitions across 12 platforms, Tim breaks down the independent sponsor model and why integration—not just aggregation—is the real value driver. He walks through building platforms from scratch, the executive-first strategy for fragmented markets, and how standardized integration playbooks turn acquired companies into...
info_outlineJohanna Jaakola – Integration Lead, Corporate Development Integration Team, Cisco
Tesia Hostetler – Leader, Acquisition Integration Practice, Cisco
Johanna Jaakola, Integration Lead on Cisco's Corporate Development Integration Team, and Tesia Hostetler, Leader of Cisco's Acquisition Integration Practice, share how one of the world's most prolific acquirers structures deals for success. This episode breaks down Cisco's integration-led diligence model, where integration leads orchestrate due diligence from the deal thesis stage, ensuring strategic alignment and execution readiness before ink hits paper. Learn how Cisco's structured approach to integration strategy, two-stage approvals, and tight feedback loops between strategy and execution have transformed their M&A outcomes—with insights from their $28 billion Splunk acquisition.
Things You'll Learn
- Why integration leads should orchestrate diligence
- How creating an integration thesis alongside your deal thesis ensures every diligence question tests strategic assumptions and drives execution clarity
- How Cisco's dual approval process (one to negotiate LOI, another for final purchase agreement) creates natural checkpoints to validate strategy before committing capital
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Episode Chapters
[00:02:00] Cisco's Integration Leadership Team
[00:06:00] Role Clarity – Integration Lead vs. Integration Practice Leader
[00:10:00] How Cisco evolved from integration showing up late to embedding integration thinking at the earliest deal thesis conversations.
[00:15:00] Testing Assumptions Through Diligence
[00:22:00] How Cisco reorganized corporate development to eliminate silos between deal strategy and integration execution, creating tighter feedback loops.
[00:29:00] Two-Stage Approvals – Protecting Value with Structured Gates
[00:33:00] Integration Leads Diligence – The Air Traffic Controller Model
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