Jerome Combes-Knoke, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at Dotmatics (Insight Partners)

Strategic focus is a prerequisite to strong corporate performance. Yet, without proactive efforts to maintain focus, companies can “drift” and become weighed down by misaligned business units.

In this episode of the M&A Science Podcast, Jerome Combes-Knoke, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at Dotmatics (a portfolio company of Insight Partners), shares his broad M&A experience and presents his approach to portfolio strategy and rebalancing through divestitures.

Things you will learn in this episode:

• Strategic focus on acquisitions, using Dotmatics’ approach.

• Portfolio rebalancing and its challenges

• Evaluating divestiture candidates

• Building internal alignment for divestitures

• Best practices for managing key risks

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Episode Timestamps

00:00 Intro 05:17 Approaching deals in a software-oriented environment 10:11 Preserving brand integrity in M&A go-to-market strategies 12:43 Approaching valuation 15:16 Strategic pitch for acquisitions 20:41 Portfolio rebalancing and its challenges 25:25 When and how to rebalance a company’s portfolio 27:29 Getting buy-in and alignment from the board and key stakeholders 33:24 Key factors in considering divestitures 36:26 Executing a divestiture for portfolio rebalancing 39:09 Best practices in executing divestitures 43:12 Divestiture success metrics 46:29 Example of portfolio rebalancing and its challenges 53:20 Craziest thing in M&A