Building Your M&A Reputation: Why Relationships Beat Transactions Every Time with Andrew Cohen
Release Date: 12/22/2025
Building Your M&A Reputation: Why Relationships Beat Transactions Every Time with Andrew Cohen
M&A Science
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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M&A Science
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M&A Science
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, Global Head of Corporate Development and M&A at State Street Corporation , Global Head of Corporate Development and M&A at State Street Corporation, brings over 20 years of expertise executing some of the most intricate custody business carve-outs in financial services. In this episode, Keith breaks down the realities of carve-out transactions—from proactive deal sourcing and dependency mapping to navigating TSAs and post-close integration. He shares hard-won lessons on avoiding common pitfalls like scope creep, third-party contract renegotiations, and employee retention challenges...
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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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M&A Science
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When Integration Beats Roll-Ups with Tim Hall
M&A Science
- 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_outlineAndy 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.
Things you will learn:
- Why reputation is your most valuable M&A asset
- The shift from zero-sum to win-enough thinking
- Learn Andy's approach to using due diligence as the foundation for integration strategy, cultural fit assessment, and long-term value creation.
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This episode is brought to you by S&P Global.
Today's episode of M&A Science is brought to you by S&P Global Market Intelligence. If you're in corp dev or PE, you know the pain — good private company data is hard to come by. Everyone's still chasing clean, reliable, up-to-date data. I started out using CapIQ Pro for public comps, but didn't realize until recently how deep their private company coverage has gotten. Over 58 million private companies, global reach, and actually usable for real deal work. This isn't surface-level. You get real metrics — ownership, financials, funding rounds, even asset-level insights. So if you're still toggling between a dozen tools trying to piece together the picture, maybe it's time to stop guessing and start sourcing better.
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Episode Timestamps
- [00:02:30] The Empathy Advantage – Why sitting in every seat at the M&A table gives you the perspective to close better deals.
- [00:04:00] Zero-Sum Thinking Will Kill Your Deals – The mindset shift from "winning" to ensuring everyone gets enough of what they want.
- [00:07:30] Building Relationships That Actually Drive Deals – How a 30-year network of bankers, VCs, and former CEOs creates proprietary deal flow.
- [00:10:30] Why Proactive Beats Auctions Every Time – Why almost all of Andy's deals are proactive and how strategic focus enables targeted outreach.
- [00:14:00] Getting to the Story Behind the Company
- [00:21:00] How to collaboratively build the acquisition narrative without being pushy or transactional.
- [00:25:00] Trust Through Reputation and References
- [00:32:00] Due Diligence Is Integration Planning
- [00:42:00] Navigating the hardest negotiations—convincing product teams that buying beats building
- [00:53:00] Walking Away on Principle – The deal Andy killed because the other side wanted to hurt employee shareholders
Questions, comments, concerns?
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