Mergers & Inquisitions » Mergers & Inquisitions

Mergers & Inquisitions 3.0

M&I — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:46:15 +0000

Almost 2 years ago today, we launched a new design for Mergers & Inquisitions that took the site from “hobby” land into “this might actually be a real business” territory.

And then a few weeks later the financial crisis struck and several large banks disappeared.

Hopefully that won’t happen this time around – because we’re launching version 3.0 today.

Here’s what’s new and how you can get tons of exclusive content for free:

New Design

First, the design is new and we’ve switched to a 2-column layout rather than the old 3-column one.

While the old design was OK, I never liked how dark the color scheme was and how it felt very crowded.

This new layout is more inviting and improves navigation by cutting out the clutter.

Free 37-Page Guide & Newsletter

Even better for you, I’ve written a free 37-page guide on breaking into investment banking, called “The Banker Blueprint.”

The goal is to give you an action plan for breaking in – even if it’s the last minute and you don’t know what to do.

The 5 sections cover how to plan your strategy, how to craft your story, how to network like a ninja, how to write a killer resume, and how to ace your interviews.

There are articles on related topics on M&I, but there are 2 big differences here:

Everything is structured and in one place for easy reference.
Rather than just getting advice on scattered topics, you get a checklist of specific action steps to take in each section.

Once you sign up for the guide, you’ll also be subscribed to a 100% free newsletter with exclusive content not available on this site.

And if you’re reading via email you can click through to sign up right here:

http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/mi-3-0

Even if you’ve read every single word on M&I since 2007, I strongly encourage you to sign up because all future site updates and new articles will be delivered via this newsletter.

You don’t want to miss that, right?

You Can Find Everything – Organized by Category

Organization has always been an issue on the site – it’s difficult to find information when you have hundreds of articles and each one is about a specific topic rather than the news of the day.

To fix this, the navigation bar under the logo now includes 5 main categories: recruiting, on the job, exit opportunities, groups & regions, and reader Q&A.

Each of these pages is then split into sub-categories such as bonuses and money, summer internships, office politics, and doing drugs.

You can also view the main categories at the bottom of every page on M&I right above the footer.

Search Actually Works

And just in case you can’t find what you’re looking for, search actually works now.

So when you search for “private equity,” you get the articles on private equity interviews, private equity resumes, and so on rather than random results.

Search is now powered by Google, so you even get auto-suggestion for key terms when you start typing in the search box at the top right.

…And More I’m Forgetting Right Now

And there are a bunch of other small changes throughout:

Comment replies look much nicer, long comment threads are paginated, and the font sizes are correct now.
We’ve been silently re-writing key articles on the site, especially the older ones that are in need of an update – and will continue with that in the future.
It’s easier to navigate by clicking on tags and categories below articles.

Casualties

Before you ask, yes, there were several casualties with the upgrade as well:

Blogroll / Latest Articles section – These cluttered up the page, attracted very few clicks, and are not necessary with the new design.
RSS / Email Subscription Options – Unnecessary because everything is now delivered through the newsletter instead.
Core Content section – Took up way too much space – you can access all of this at the top of the site now.
Related Articles / Twitter – I might bring these back, but once again they were producing few clicks / followers.

What’s Next?

First, sign up below for the free 37-page guide and newsletter:

Coming up next will be more reader interviews and more on office politics and other topics that haven’t been covered extensively.

And on the product front, joining the 6 existing products on BIWS will be industry-specific modeling (FIG, real estate, and energy) between now and the first half of 2011.

I’m still not 100% happy with the new site layout so there will be further tweaks here as well.

Your Feedback

And as always, let me know if I missed anything, if something isn’t working, or if you have any suggestions for other features you want to see.

What You Should Do Before April 30th at 5 PM

M&I — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:09:35 +0000

Easy: Sign up for the Breaking Into Wall Street Financial Modeling Program.

If you signed up to receive the 6 free financial modeling tutorials last week this won’t come as news to you, but for everyone else:

The price of the financial modeling program increases by 50% on April 30, 2010, at 5 PM US Eastern Time.

In the video below, I give you a full tour of the site, walk you through exactly what you get when you sign up, and tell you about the free updates you’ll receive over the next year.

And if you’d prefer to read, you can look at the full outline right here:

Breaking Into Wall Street – Outline & Offer

If you missed the 6 free tutorials last week, you can sign up right here.

If you want to see what customers’ experiences with the program have been, check that out here.

To answer a few other common questions I’ve been getting:

1) Is there any reason to wait until AFTER the April 30 deadline?

If you are interested in only the Financial Modeling Fundamentals or Excel modules, then you may want to wait because the price on those will be less than $247 once we make them available separately.

But if you want the Advanced Modeling module or the upcoming PowerPoint tutorials / industry-specific modeling then you’re much better off signing up right now.

2) What if I can’t start going through everything right now?

You have lifetime access to the site, so it shouldn’t be a problem – just come back to it when you’re ready to start.

In fact, the program will only get better and better over time so you lose nothing.

3) Is everything downloadable? Does my membership expire? Are there any geographic restrictions on where I can access this from?

Everything is downloadable in MP4, iPhone, and iPod formats.

Memberships come with lifetime access, so they don’t expire unless you ask for a refund.

There are no geographic restrictions, so you will be fine accessing the site on different computers and in different cities / countries.

4) You’ve mentioned these “free updates” – but what exactly are you planning to add?

Near-Term: PowerPoint tutorials (over the next 2 months).

Long-Term: Industry-specific modeling – starting with real estate, energy, and financial institutions (over the next year).

In addition, we may be adding in more practice exercises to certain sections of the site.

After that, it’s really up to you: we survey everyone periodically and ask about the most-wanted additions.

5) Do you recommend this program for consultants? Financial planners? Traders? Asset management?

Honestly, no, not really – you don’t really use financial modeling in the same sense in any of those fields.

If you want to sign up out of intellectual curiosity you could certainly do that – but modeling won’t be as useful for career purposes.

It’s most helpful for investment banking and private equity, and could be helpful for hedge funds, equity research, and corporate finance at normal companies depending on the work you do.

More?

See you before April 30 at 5 PM Eastern Time.

Any more questions? Ask away.

6 New Financial Modeling Tutorials For You

M&I — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:28:55 +0000

Let’s skip the clever introduction and get straight to the point: to get 2 new, 3-part financial modeling tutorials, just enter your email address below:

Tutorial 1: Merger Model (3-part tutorial)
Tutorial 2: Revenue Model for Yahoo! (3-part tutorial)

Tutorial 1 is better if you’re new to finance or want to learn the fundamentals from the ground up.

Tutorial 2 is better if you’re more advanced and want to see how you can use SEC filings, investor presentations, and equity research to build a model as you would at a bank.

Or hey, you can go through both if you really like hearing my voice.

Why Now?

Because I’m such a nice guy, right?

That might be true, but the actual reason is different: starting on April 30, 2010, at 5 PM Eastern Time, the structure of the Breaking Into Wall Street financial modeling program is changing and the price is going up.

We’ve added a ridiculous amount of new content over the past year (Jerry actually makes fun of me for how much time I spend making videos), and these new tutorials are designed to teach you more advanced concepts and show you how the program has changed.

When we started out a year ago – the site launched on April 20, 2009 – hundreds of you signed up right away and we received great feedback on everything in the program.

And look, it even managed to generate controversy on a message board and resulted in pretty much everyone responding with “This is awesome!”

And Then…

So the next logical step was to spend a year completely revamping everything in the course, making it even better, and adding tons of new content along the way.

Here’s what’s new:

The “Fundamentals” portion of the course is now based on a case study of Apple and Research in Motion, and the models are more complex, better-formatted, and have practice exercises and Excel tips built-in.
33 Excel tutorial lessons covering everything from basic navigation to pivot tables and macros.
35-hour long case study on Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Yahoo in 2008 – Advanced Operating Model, Valuation, Merger Model, and LBO Model, all based on real SEC filings and equity research from Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and other banks.

In total, there are now 244 videos – 63 hours of footage.

And the best part: if you signed up anytime between last year and now, you got everything for free.

But Not For Long

But as we added more and more content to the site, I kept getting 2 comments from customers:

Do I need to learn all of this? There are so many videos here!
When are you raising the price? This is worth way more than what you’re currently charging.

So I decided to split everything into separate modules – starting on April 30, Excel, Financial Modeling Fundamentals, and Advanced Modeling will all be separate products.

The Bad News

The bad news, though, is that the combined price for everything is going up on April 30.

Right now the entire program is $247. On April 30, the combined price for all 3 modules will be going up to $391, moving closer to the $497 long-term price I’ve been mentioning for the past year.

The Good News

If you sign up before April 30, you not only get a discounted price but you also receive another bonus:

Free access to upcoming tutorials on PowerPoint and industry-specific modeling (Financial Institutions, Real Estate, and so on) set to arrive over the next year.

You can still get these upcoming tutorials if you don’t sign up right now… but they won’t be free.

What You Should Do Right Now

You’ve got 3 choices:

Ignore this because you have no interest in financial modeling.
Sign up for the course before April 30, 2010.
Enter your email address below to get the free tutorials and learn more about the program:

I’ve barely mentioned anything about the financial modeling program since launching it last year – but massive changes are coming in less than 2 weeks, so I wanted to let you know in advance.

You’ll get 1 more reminder next week before the changes go into effect.

Even if you have no interest in any financial modeling training program, you should still sign up for the free tutorials because you’ll learn a lot about accounting, finance, and how you create real models at a bank.

You’ll get part 1 of both tutorials right away, followed by part 2 in 2 days (Wednesday), and then the conclusion on Friday.

See you inside!