100-Day Plan
Definition
A 100-day plan is the structured programme an acquirer follows in the first roughly three months after completing an acquisition to stabilise the business and begin realising the value it paid for. It sequences the priorities: securing the key people and customers, communicating with staff, connecting essential systems and controls, and starting on the synergies that justified the deal — without disrupting what already works. The first hundred days set the tone of the integration and are where most acquisitions succeed or quietly fail, because the intangible assets a buyer paid for, from customer relationships to institutional knowledge, are most fragile in the period of change. A good 100-day plan is drafted before completion, informed by what due diligence revealed, and owned by a named integration lead. For buy-and-build acquirers it becomes a repeatable playbook applied to every bolt-on.
Complementary Terms
Concepts that frequently appear alongside 100-Day Plan in practice.
A transitional services agreement (TSA) is a contract under which a seller continues to provide certain services to a business after it has been sold, for a limited period and usually for a fee, until the buyer can operate the business independently. TSAs are common when a business is carved out of a larger group and relies on shared functions — IT systems, payroll, finance, procurement or premises — that do not transfer automatically on completion.
The additional value created when two businesses combine that neither could achieve independently. Synergy value arises from cost savings, revenue enhancements, or operational efficiencies post-merger, and is a key driver of acquisition premiums.
The accumulated knowledge, processes, systems, and culture that enable a firm to operate effectively. Organisational capital includes management practices, internal processes, proprietary methodologies, quality systems, and the institutional knowledge that persists beyond individual employees.
A change of control occurs when ownership of a company passes to a new party, as it does on an acquisition. The term matters in M&A because many of a business's contracts contain change-of-control clauses that are triggered by the sale: a customer or supplier contract, a lease, a licence or a loan may allow the other party to renegotiate or terminate if the company changes hands.
Further Reading
Related FAQ
Define your acquisition thesis, build a target list, approach owners, agree heads of terms, run due diligence, finance and structure the deal, then complete and integrate it with a 100-day plan.
Read full answer →A 100-day plan is the structured programme an acquirer follows in the first roughly three months after completion to stabilise the business, retain its people and customers, and begin realising the synergies that justified the deal.
Read full answer →What are synergies in an acquisition?
Synergies are the additional value created by combining two businesses — cost synergies from removing duplication, and revenue synergies from cross-selling or reaching new markets — that neither would achieve alone.
Read full answer →Put this knowledge to work
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