M&A Science Live: How M&A Turns a Chemical Company Into a Tech Business
But what happens when the acquisition isn't just adding capability — it's changing your identity? When the goal isn't growth, it's transformation?
About
That's the challenge Chandradev Mehta is navigating at Hexion. As SVP of Strategy and Business Development at one of the world's leading specialty chemicals companies, he's using M&A to answer a question more industrial incumbents are wrestling with: how do you become a technology-driven business when your foundation is built on chemistry?
In this live session, Chandradev will share how he thinks about acquisition strategy when the goal is business model evolution — not just revenue expansion. He'll break down how to identify the right targets, what diligence looks like when you're buying capabilities you don't fully understand yet, and how to integrate technology businesses into a legacy industrial organization without killing what made the acquisition valuable in the first place.
Agenda
Live Q&A at the end — bring your deal questions.
What You'll Learn
- How to build an M&A thesis around transformation, not just growth — what it means to use acquisitions to change what kind of company you are
- How to identify and evaluate technology targets as an industrial acquirer — what to look for when the asset is capabilities, not chemistry
- How to structure diligence when you're the buyer who doesn't know the space — what discovery looks like when you're intentionally acquiring into unfamiliar territory
- How integration changes when the goal is transformation — why the standard 100-day playbook breaks when you're absorbing a fundamentally different business model
- How to protect acquired technology culture inside a legacy organization — what actually kills tech acquisitions at industrial companies, and how to prevent it
- How to sequence a transformation strategy across multiple deals — building an acquisition program, not just executing individual transactions
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