The Deal Paradox: Mergers and Acquisitions Success in the Age of Digital Transformation

The Deal Paradox explores what successful dealmaking looks like in the age of digital transformation, drawing on interviews with top dealmakers and M&A experts sharing their stories, triumphs, and challenges.

Taking a dynamic storytelling approach, The Deal Paradox navigates the transition from traditional and ingrained methods to new techniques, showing how AI, big data, and machine learning can be used to generate new opportunities and how technology can be used to enable diversity. It walks through the attributes and skills needed in this new landscape and how M&A professionals can build them into their approach, from finding and executing deals to making sure they deliver the desired outcomes.

The Deal Paradox draws on impressive industry knowledge: the authors have more than 60 years' combined experience of cutting-edge deal making, built on landmark deals ranging from Morgan Stanley's IPO at the height of the 1980s banking boom and Kraft's takeover of Cadbury to key tech deals including the £1bn sale of financial data intelligence company Acuris to ION. Chapters are richly illustrated throughout with real-world examples featuring organizations such as Apple, Google, S&P Global and SoftBank Vision.

Michel Driessen is a Senior Partner in EY's Strategy and Transactions group, based in London, UK. He has previously held senior executive positions at Accenture, Visa and Rabobank. He has worked on and led over 100 multi-billion pound transactions with the world's largest corporations and private equity firms on some of the biggest and most complex cross-border engagements. He is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at Bayes Business School in London.

Anna Faelten , PhD, is an experienced corporate finance Partner at EY, based in London, UK. She leads EY's Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) Corporate Finance practice. She has more than 10 years of corporate finance and consulting experience, spanning public to private sector, private equity-backed, founder owned and corporate buy-side and sell-side transactions.

Scott Moeller is a Professor in the Practice of Finance at the Bayes Business School in London, UK, and is the founder and Director of the M&A Research Centre. He teaches 'Mergers & Acquisitions' in the MBA and MSc programmes. Prior to joining academia, he had a highly successful banking career with Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, holding a number of senior management roles.

Michel Driessen is a Senior Partner in EY's Strategy and Transactions group. He has previously held senior executive positions at Accenture, Visa and Rabobank. He has worked on and led over 100 multi-billion-pound transactions with the world's largest corporations and private equity firms. He is an Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at Bayes Business School in London.


Anna Faelten, PhD, is an experienced corporate finance Partner at EY. She leads EY's Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) Corporate Finance practice. She has a wealth of corporate finance and consulting experience, spanning public to private sector, private equity-backed, founder owned and corporate buy-side and sell-side transactions.


Scott Moeller is a Professor in the Practice of Finance at the Bayes Business School in London, UK, and is the founder and Director of the M&A Research Centre. He teaches 'Mergers & Acquisitions' in the MBA and MSc programmes. He has had a highly successful banking career with Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, holding a number of senior management roles.