A prolific global strategic acquirer operating in the strategy and consulting space was looking to balance a recent major investment in a European smart manufacturing consultancy with an equivalent acquisition in North America. With technology and innovation driving this segment of the market, and extensive cross-selling potential across its global client base, there were compelling reasons for accelerating growth in its North American practice through M&A. Artemis was retained for a series of deep searches across capability sets that could potentially provide the required uplift in capacity and transform growth potential.

To ‘move the needle’ the company required an acquisition of scale, where fewer firms would be ‘below the radar’ or outside ownership of financial sponsors. Hence:

• Internal market scans and banked processes had not yielded a target meeting requirements
• Many firms with relevant consulting offerings had developed software or manufacturing capability that made them unviable as targets
• Level of innovation in relevant targets meant they could have come from a number of prior propositions, complicating the identification process

• Completion of 6 separate scans across related adjacencies over a period of under 5 months covering 10 countries

• Provision of both the target ultimately acquired by our client and context to lean in on valuation and launch a successful bid