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M&A and due diligence case practice, find the walk-away price

A buyer is considering an acquisition. Work a full sample case: choose what to diligence, value the target and the synergies and set a walk-away price, with a timer and a worked answer. Free, with no sign-up.

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Free and runs in your browser. The case is original and fictional, and Soreno is independent of any consulting firm. The 7-day free trial includes 2 mock interviews and 3 drills.

Free sample case: candidate-led

The M&A and due diligence case you can try now

You choose what to diligence, build standalone value and synergies and recommend a price.

Step 1. Read the case

Fresh Basket and MealMate: what is the target worth?

The interviewer reads you the case

Your client is Fresh Basket, a regional grocery chain. It is considering buying MealMate, a meal-kit company with $80 million of revenue. The seller asks $96 million. The CEO wants to know whether to buy it and what the most Fresh Basket should pay.

An original, fictional practice case written by Soreno. It is not a question from any firm's interviews. Everything stays in your browser.

Step 2. Ask clarifying questions

In an M&A case, confirm the buyer's rationale, what is being bought and how value is measured.

Step 3. Structure your answer

Take two minutes. Structure how you would decide whether to buy MealMate and what to pay. Write it, then say it out loud.

2:00

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Soreno's AI interviewer gives you a full case, asks follow-up questions on your structure and math, and scores your answer. The 7-day free trial includes 2 mock interviews and 3 drills.

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Framework outline

How a M&A and due diligence case is usually structured

A short outline for the type. Our M&A case study article walks through a different example in depth; this page is for practice.

  1. 1

    Strategic fit

    Why this target, what the buyer gets (customers, capabilities, scale) and whether it fits the strategy.

  2. 2

    Standalone value

    What the target is worth without the buyer: profit, growth, quality of earnings, customer retention, comparable multiples.

  3. 3

    Synergies and cost to achieve

    Cost savings and revenue gains, valued separately and net of the one-time integration cost. Revenue synergies are less certain.

  4. 4

    Price and walk-away

    Standalone value plus the share of synergies the buyer will keep, minus integration cost. Do not pay all the synergies to the seller.

  5. 5

    Risks

    Customer churn, key people leaving, integration problems and overpaying.

Mistakes to avoid

Where candidates lose points

Common ways to go wrong in this type of case, based on how the sample case is built.

  • Listing generic deal risks with no view on value.
  • Paying the seller for all of the synergies, so the buyer captures none.
  • Treating revenue synergies as certain or forgetting the one-time cost to achieve.
  • Using the seller's asking price as the starting point rather than building value up.
  • Ignoring customer retention or key people when they drive the target's value.

A strong answer states the headline first, shows the numbers that support it and ends with a recommendation and next steps.

Keep going

Read more, then do it out loud

The guides go deeper on M&A and due diligence cases. Drill the math, or compare ways to practice.

FAQ's

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about Soreno, answered in one place.

No. It is an original, fictional M&A case written by Soreno, with numbers that reconcile. It is not a question from any consulting firm's interviews. The firm pages under Practice link to what each firm publishes about its own interviews.
A case where a buyer (a company or a fund) considers acquiring a target. You assess fit, value the target on its own, value the synergies and set a price the buyer should not exceed.
The article explains the framework and works one example in depth. This page gives you a different sample case to run against a timer, with the numbers re-computed and a short outline. Read the article to learn the method, then practice with this case.
The most the buyer should pay: the target's standalone value plus the synergies, minus the one-time cost to achieve them. In practice a buyer bids below it so that it keeps part of the synergy value.
No. The sample case runs in your browser with no sign-up, and nothing you type is saved or sent.
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