Buying a single company is different from growing through repeated acquisitions. If you buy companies one after another, the group's net sales will increase by simple addition. However, whether cash continues to remain after bearing acquisition costs and handover expenses is another issue.

What is questioned in serial acquisitions is not only the ability to find attractive deals. Where to allocate limited funds and human resources, and how to feed post-acquisition results back into the next decision-making process. Having such a mechanism in place is what matters.

A roll-up is not just lining up companies

The strategy of making repeated acquisitions in the same or adjacent industries to build scale and a business foundation is called a roll-up. The foundational company is sometimes called the platform, and the acquisitions added to it are called bolt-ons.

For example, acquiring regional maintenance companies and sharing recruitment, training, and parts procurement. Meanwhile, customer service is left to the regional companies. With this approach, it is clear what to do together to generate profit and what to keep to maintain customers.

Serial acquisitions can also take the form of bringing companies from multiple industries under the corporate umbrella while emphasizing the management independence of each. Companies that repeat acquisitions do not necessarily integrate them into a single company. Commonalities among acquisition targets and the scope of standardized management are designed separately.

What did they try to expand with the additional acquisition of 253 million yen in stock consideration?

On March 2, 2026, fonfun announced the acquisition of all shares of YNP, a company engaged in engineering services and system development.The stock consideration is 253 million yen, and the total including estimated advisory fees of 11 million yen is 264 million yen.is. The company positions M&A as a pillar of its growth strategy, citing affinity with existing businesses and initiatives for human resource development as the reasons for the acquisition.Acquisition disclosure dated March 2, 2026, pp. 1–3

In the 10th installment, another acquisition by the company highlights talent responsible for integration, while this acquisition illustrates the expansion of the business and organization. When examining serial acquisitions, one can verify not just the number of deals, but also what each company complements.

However, even if the reason for the acquisition and the target company's past profits are known, it cannot be said that the investment has been recovered. Even when the group's net sales increase, it is necessary to separate the fluctuations in the existing business from the sales of the newly acquired company.

We also track existing companies, acquisitions from previous years, and acquisitions from the current year separately. Even if overall revenue increases, the existing business may be shrinking. We confirm which businesses generate cash and where additional funds or support are needed before moving on to the next deal.

Have conditions for not buying before choosing a case

Before researching all the introduced companies with the same level of enthusiasm, we will determine the conditions for exclusion. Even if a company looks inexpensive, if we cannot confirm the succession of necessary technologies or the maintenance of licenses and permits, we may not be able to continue the planned business. Even if the acquisition price is small, if it is a company that requires monthly capital supplementation, it creates the burden of having to forego other investments.

The final question is also related to price negotiation. When the desire to "not want to miss out on this deal" becomes too strong, the profits after improvement end up being paid to the seller in advance. If all the results of improvements that the buyer will realize at future expense are included in the acquisition price, the profit remaining for the buyer will be small.

The budget is not built solely on the acquisition price.

Next is an independent hypothetical example. Suppose a company has 300 million yen in cash available for investment, after securing the working capital necessary for its core business. If acquiring the target company's shares requires 120 million yen, due diligence and professional fees require 10 million yen, and equipment upgrades and working capital require 30 million yen, the planned expenditures total 160 million yen.

The remaining amount is 140 million yen. If you think, "I bought a company for 120 million yen, so I have another 180 million yen to spend," you miss the 40 million yen needed in addition to the acquisition cost. Furthermore, if you secure funds for your core business's cash flow and unexpected repairs, the amount available for the next acquisition becomes smaller.

Financing through borrowing allows you to adjust the timing of cash outflows, but it does not make the economic burden disappear. We will review the cash flow of the entire group, including interest rates, repayments, financial covenants, and refinancing terms. We also do not assume that the cash of the acquired company can be used entirely to pay for the acquisition without checking the necessary working capital and restrictions on fund transfers.

The number of people who can handle PMI becomes the upper limit of the acquisition pace.

Immediately after an acquisition, the tasks of understanding accounting and finances, managing the transition of executives, and dealing with key customers and employees all pile up. If a single person handles multiple companies simultaneously and fails to even review monthly figures, the discovery of problems will be delayed.

If you set a target for the number of deals first, you might end up buying more than your handover capacity allows. As conditions for proceeding to the next deal, set milestones required for your company, such as whether a responsible person has been decided at the previous acquisition, whether the monthly closing is complete, or whether the retention of major customers has been confirmed. How to proceed with individual PMI will be covered in Chapter 10.

Even problems identified during due diligence only gain meaning when handed over to the subsequent person in charge. For example, if a dependency on a specific engineer is discovered, it is incorporated into the post-acquisition plan not just by reflecting it in contract clauses, but also by including successor training and recruitment costs. "Investigated" is not the same as "addressed."

Feed the post-acquisition performance back into the next pricing decision

When measuring results, we track not only sales and profits, but also the initial investment, additional funds after acquisition, and cash recovered. After aligning the periods and definitions, we compare them with the plan at the time of the acquisition.

Adding the profits of the new acquisition to make the overall figures look better does not resolve the underperformance of previously bought companies. By separating the data by acquisition year and tracking changes in customers, profits, and cash, you can verify which selection criteria or price estimates were overly optimistic.

Depending on whether the reason for the shortfall was misjudged demand, insufficient handover, or pricing that was too high from the start, our next response will change. Rather than postponing everything with the excuse that "synergies will emerge from now on," we will compare options—including additional investment, plan revisions, and sale or withdrawal.

The strength of serial acquisitions lies not simply in increasing the number of companies bought, but in validating previous decisions to improve the allocation of future capital. By building a system that even encompasses the decision to stop acquisitions, M&A transforms from an event driven by executive momentum into a continuous investment for growth.