Types of Tuck-in Acquisitions
Tuck-ins are classified by their primary purpose or benefit. In many cases a great acquisition fits multiple classifications. Product Expansion/Improvement We typically target smaller companies with unique technology, core expertise, and some reference customers. An acquisition that acquires a best in class feature or module addition combined with the key people who built it and some great logos accelerates your product roadmap years with a higher probability of success. The real trade off in this acquisition type is build, partner or buy decision. When you think of building, remember its not just an MVP version that is required. You need to build the MVP, get customer feedback, and then sell and implement a group of reference customers. When you think partner, its not just finding, negotiating, papering and announcing the partnership, it is also educating the partner and then selling and implementing a group of reference partners. ...