Serial acquirer Lifco improves post-acquisition performance by having sellers retain an ownership stake in their business. This goes beyond typical earn-outs, keeping the founder's expertise and incentives aligned with the parent company for long-term growth, rather than just hitting short-term targets.

Palo Alto Networks' M&A playbook mandates that acquired founders, who out-innovated internal teams, take charge. This empowers the founders and leverages their proven expertise, even if it unnerves existing employees. The people who were winning in the market should be put in charge.

Eli Lilly's recent deal-making reveals an aggressive, multi-modal strategy. It secured an AI partnership for obesity (Nimbus), invested in an AI platform for oncology (InduPro), and spent $1.2B acquiring Ventix Biosciences for its oral inflammation pipeline, demonstrating a broad approach to securing leadership in its focus areas.

Counter to the adage that "startups shouldn't buy startups," Cursor successfully uses M&A as a core recruiting strategy. They acquire small, talented teams working on complementary problems, viewing acquisitions as a way to onboard the best people who happen to already be working on their own companies.

When integrating acquired biotechs, Merck prioritizes retaining key talent and preserving ongoing science. The strategy involves immediate face-to-face engagement to reduce anxiety, followed by a pragmatic assessment of which processes must be standardized versus which can remain to avoid disrupting critical trials, a practice they call avoiding 'mercification'.

Palo Alto Networks' M&A playbook defies convention. Instead of integrating an acquisition under existing managers, they often replace their own internal team with the acquired leaders. The logic is that the acquired team won in the market with fewer resources, making them better equipped to lead that strategy forward.

Founders whose startups were acquired by large enterprises can become your most powerful internal champions. They understand the startup mentality, know how to navigate internal politics and procurement, and are often motivated to bring in better technology. Actively seek them out.

Instead of a traditional executive search, Miro took an unconventional route to fill its C-suite: it acquired competitor InVision and appointed its CEO, Jeff Chow, as Miro's Chief Product and Technology Officer. This move secured proven leadership and an experienced team in a single strategic transaction.

To improve founder retention after an acquisition, Deel's CEO has them report directly to him for a period. This approach provides autonomy, demonstrates their importance to the company's long-term vision, and shows that their expertise is valued at the highest level.