M&A Target Screening & Synergy Calculator: Find and Value the Perfect Deal

Don’t rely on gut feelings to choose acquisition targets. Objectively score potential deals based on strategic fit, and mathematically quantify cost and revenue synergies to avoid overpaying.

Try the Live Interactive Demo

Before you dive into the features, test the power of the M&A Screening Tool yourself. Access our live, fully functional demo, input your target criteria, and see exactly how fast you can calculate deal synergies.

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Synergies Are the Biggest Lie in M&A—Unless You Prove Them

Every investment banker will tell you that “1+1 = 3” in an acquisition. They claim massive cost savings from “eliminating redundancies” and huge revenue boosts from “cross-selling.” But when the deal closes, those synergies rarely materialize, and you end up destroying shareholder value.

The problem starts at the very beginning. When evaluating targets, teams use subjective criteria to pick who to buy. Then, they estimate synergies using broad stroke percentages without mapping them to actual P&L line items. If you can’t objectively screen targets and mathematically defend your synergy assumptions, you are just guessing with millions of dollars.

It’s time to bring institutional rigor to your deal pipeline with a dual-purpose screening and synergy modeling tool.

What Makes This the Ultimate M&A Analysis Tool?

Built for corporate development teams, PE associates, and CEOs who need error-free deal logic.

• Weighted Target Screening Matrix: Stop debating subjective fit. Assign weights to criteria (e.g., Technology Fit 30%, Geographic Overlap 20%, EBITDA Margins 50%) and score targets to automatically rank your deal pipeline.
• Granular Cost Synergy Calculator: Map synergies directly to the income statement. Model exactly how many FTEs can be eliminated, real estate consolidated, and software licenses canceled to calculate a hard dollar cost savings number.
• Revenue Synergy Modeling: Don’t just assume cross-selling will work. Input your base overlap, expected attach rate, and time-to-revenue to calculate a realistic, discounted revenue synergy forecast.
• Accretion / Dilution Impact: Instantly see if paying the asking price for the target—factoring in your synergy assumptions—will actually increase or decrease your Earnings Per Share (EPS).
• One-Click IC Memo Export: Need to present the target to the board for approval? Export a perfectly formatted PDF showing the screening score, detailed synergy bridge, and EPS impact in one click.

How It Works

1. Screen the Market: Define your acquisition thesis and score potential targets against your weighted criteria.
2. Map the Synergies: For your top choice, input the specific cost reductions and revenue cross-sell assumptions.
3. Validate the Price: View the synergy-adjusted valuation and EPS accretion to determine your maximum bid price.

Who Is This Tool For?

• Corporate Development (Corp Dev) Teams: Streamline your inbound deal flow. Spend time only on targets that score highly on your strategic matrix.
• Private Equity Associates: Build bulletproof LBO models by proving to your partners that the synergies you modeled are tied to real operational cuts, not magic.
• CEO & Strategy Leaders: Evaluate potential acquisitions objectively without relying solely on the biased pitch books of investment bankers.
• M&A Consultants: Deliver premium, data-backed screening reports and synergy audits to your mid-market clients.

Enterprise-Grade Features, Zero Friction

• 🌙 Dark Mode Included: Perfect for late-night deal modeling sessions.
• 💾 100% Local & Private (IndexedDB): Your highly confidential deal pipeline, target names, and synergy assumptions never leave your browser. Zero risk of M&A leaks.
• 📊 Visual Synergy Bridge: A clear, charted waterfall showing exactly how you get from the target’s standalone EBITDA to the Pro-Forma combined EBITDA.
• ⚡ Instant Calculations: Reduce your assumed cost synergy realization from 90% to 70% and watch the EPS impact and maximum bid price update instantly.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between Cost and Revenue Synergies?

Cost synergies come from cutting expenses (e.g., firing redundant HR staff, closing a duplicate office). Revenue synergies come from increasing the top line (e.g., selling your products to their existing customer base). Cost synergies are much easier to realize than revenue synergies.

What is EPS Accretion/Dilution?

It measures if the deal makes your company more profitable per share. If you buy a company and the combined earnings per share goes UP, it is “accretive.” If it goes DOWN (usually because you overpaid or synergies fail), it is “dilutive.” Public companies heavily focus on this.

Does this include a full DCF valuation?

This tool focuses specifically on the pre-valuation phase: objectively picking the right target and mathematically justifying the synergies to determine what you *should* pay. You would then take these synergy numbers and plug them into a standalone DCF or LBO model for the final valuation.

Is my deal data secure?

Absolutely. This is a standalone HTML application. It does not send, store, or transmit your confidential M&A targets or synergy models to any external server. Your data stays entirely on your local machine.