Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) remain a compelling growth strategy for businesses looking to scale, diversify, or outpace the competition. But the sobering reality is that most deals fail—roughly 70%, by many estimates. That staggering number has many executives asking why M&A fail, even when the strategic rationale seems sound.
The truth is, M&A failures are rarely caused by a single misstep. Instead, they’re often the result of compounding challenges—misaligned goals, flawed integration planning, cultural disconnects, or simply underestimating the complexity of the work. Understanding why mergers and acquisitions fail is essential not just to avoid risk, but to unlock the full value of a deal.
So why do mergers and acquisitions fail? Common reasons include:
- Inaccurate valuation
- Failure to extract value from the integration process
- Culture clashes
- High cost of recovery
- Failure to assess alternatives
Even experienced leaders can overlook nuances in an unfamiliar market or overestimate a deal’s potential. Many companies underestimate the resources needed for a smooth transition, relying heavily on stretched internal teams or costly junior consultants from large firms. This is where having the right M&A support can make all the difference.
The 2025 M&A Landscape
M&A activity began to rebound in late 2023 and gained momentum in 2024, driven by strategic consolidations and renewed private equity investments. AI and digital transformation are accelerating tech-driven acquisitions, while high-growth sectors like healthcare and fintech remain active.
Meanwhile, increased regulatory scrutiny and complex deal structures are making post-merger integration even more critical—and more difficult to get right. These trends are fueling demand for experienced M&A specialists who can help companies avoid common pitfalls and manage integrations with precision.
What Drives M&A Deals?
Executives pursue M&A to:
- Expand into new markets or bolster an existing presence
- Gain a competitive edge by acquiring innovation or eliminating threats
- Achieve cost efficiencies through scale
But no matter the goal, the success of a deal depends on effective planning and seamless integration—often requiring outside expertise.
Steps for M&A Success
With the high failure rate of mergers and acquisitions, a proactive approach for resourcing the initiative is essential. Freelance M&A advisors can bring essential experience and provide critical support at each stage:
Planning
Seasoned professionals can help identify acquisition targets, assess strategic fit, and bring an objective viewpoint to deal strategy.
Due Diligence
In fast-moving bid processes, companies turn to independent M&A specialists to avoid costly missteps and maintain deal momentum.
Integration Execution
Post-merger integration is often the toughest phase. Freelance M&A consultants provide agile, cost-effective support to align operations, cultures, and systems while maintaining business continuity.
Keeping value creation front and center—whether it’s market access, talent, or a business model—is key to driving integration decisions.
How Freelance M&A Consultants Contribute
Successful M&A deals require more than just strategic intent—they demand focused execution across multiple dimensions. This includes thorough planning and diligence, strong cultural alignment, seamless technology and operational integration, effective change management, and clear, consistent communication. Each of these elements plays a critical role in ensuring that the deal delivers on its promised value.
On-demand talent provides comprehensive support throughout each phase of a merger or acquisition, ensuring organizations have the right expertise at the right time. This includes:
- Interim leadership to backfill vacant, mission-critical roles or relieve an internal employee performing multiple roles
- Surge capacity for deal teams
- Transformation leaders and project and program managers to monitor progress, align stakeholders, refine strategy, lead workstreams, and manage communications
- Subject matter experts with specialized knowledge and specific skillsets to oversee tech and data integrations and address finance needs
- Change managers to maintain alignment across teams, drive standardization, and train and upskill employees
- Process optimization experts to eliminate inefficiencies and implement continuous improvement measures
- Classically trained consultants to support strategic priorities or bridge a hand-off from a large strategy firm
These freelance post-merger integration experts bring deep experience—often with both consulting and operational backgrounds—allowing them to plug in and make a difference fast.
How Freelance Experts Help Avoid M&A Failure
Equip your team right with access to BTG’s community of top independent talent and interim executives. By combining on-the-ground experience with extensive skills and technical expertise, they are able to deliver a pragmatic view that goes beyond the usual abstract analyses. They can ramp up or down as needed, without adding the significant overhead and risk of a permanent hire. Here are just a few examples of past successes:
Navigating a Carve-Out Acquisition
When a leading industrial company’s internal acquisition team faced this highly specific kind of acquisition for the first time, its board of directors turned to BTG to locate an experienced freelance M&A consultant to serve as a neutral advisor. He worked quickly and discreetly to anticipate problems, structure transition services, analyze options, and more. Read more »
Strategic Due Diligence
When a global private equity firm realized that traditional consulting firms couldn’t deliver the deep technical knowledge its operating partners required, it engaged BTG to enhance due diligence across its portfolio. The firm now turns to BTG for on-demand access to independent specialists with deep operational and geographical expertise. Read more »
Interim HR Leader to Drive Process and Culture Integration
When a private-equity-backed provider of labor market data acquired its biggest competitor, leaders knew they would face a challenge in their integration efforts. Not only did they need to develop new processes and policies for the now twice-as-large workforce, the two companies also held very different cultures that would need to be bridged to leverage their respective strengths. Read more »
The Future of M&A
As M&A activity continues to accelerate, companies must embrace a more agile, expert-driven approach to mitigate risks and ensure deal success. Bringing in freelance merger integration consultants is an increasingly popular strategy to obtain the deep expertise and flexibility required to navigate these complex transactions effectively.
If you’re considering a major acquisition or merger, don’t go it alone and risk becoming another M&A failure statistic. BTG can help you join the ranks of companies that have succeeded by tapping seasoned M&A integration specialists for support. These experts are readily available on-demand to provide critical insights and hands-on leadership that make a deal a win-win for all parties.
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About the Author
More Content by Emily Slayton
