Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete this survey. Your insights as an M&A practitioner are invaluable to our academic research project that focuses on the negotiation dynamics in mergers and acquisitions—and in particular the role played by "preliminary agreements" such as term sheets, letters of intent, and memoranda of understanding.

The questions below ask you about your experience in negotiating "M&A transactions", which we mean transactions that would transfer a substantial percentage (at least 1/3) of cash flow and control rights over a business asset. Any transaction that would accomplish this end is fair game, regardless of the precise form of transaction used (e.g., stock sale, asset sale, tender offer, statutory merger, etc.).

All responses to this survey will be anonymized, treated as strictly confidential, and reported only in aggregate.

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* 1. Over the last 10 years, how many prospective M&A transactions have you been involved in negotiating (regardless of whether they ultimately culminated in a definitive agreement)?

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* 2. In what portion of the negotiations you documented in the previous question did you at some point negotiate from a preliminary agreement such as a term sheet/LOI/MOU (hereinafter collectively referred to as “term sheets”)?

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* 3. Among the M&A transactions you have negotiated from a term sheet, how frequently are the central financial terms of the deal (in particular headline price) already established and/or specifically stated in the term sheet?

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* 4. What portion of the term sheets that you have worked from have successfully culminated in a definitive agreement?

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* 5. In situations where you have been working from a term sheet towards a definitive agreement, how often have one or both negotiating teams proposed to re-visit / alter the core financial terms (e.g., headline price) as the other remaining terms are being hashed out?

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* 6. In situations where at least one negotiating team has attempted to re-visit the core financial terms (e.g., headline price), how often do they succeed in altering the such terms?

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* 7. In situations where at least one negotiating team has attempted to re-visit core financial terms (e.g., headline price), are such efforts concentrated by size of deal? (Select all that apply)

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* 8. To the extent that core financial terms (e.g., headline price) are difficult to change during the negotiation of a definitive agreement, what are the key reasons for their stickiness in your opinion?

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* 9. Notwithstanding how you answered the last question, over the last 10 years do you perceive the frequency of efforts to revisit / adjust core financial terms (e.g., headline price) to be trending in any direction?

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* 10. Please evaluate the following statement: “The core terms memorialized in a term sheet are a critical baseline from which to design and /or tailor additional provisions in order to fit the economics and client concerns in the deal.”

Please click the "Next" button below to move to a second page where we collect some basic (anonymous) information about your and your firm's practice focus.

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