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"The Pulse" #60 / Poison Pills & Hostile Takeovers
The Pulse
July 21, 2024
SA 2025 interview szn is HERE! Don’t fall behind your competition by wasting time tracking applications.
Instead, use our Premium Database to gain access to 200+ banks/consulting/buyside firms. Venmo @ThePulsePrep $50 or pay with credit card (ThePulsePrep—Stripe.com) and shoot us an e-mail @[email protected]. Additional details of the database can be found below. Gain an edge over everyone by accessing a wealth of recruiting resources and detailed explanations of the interview processes of each firm.
Video of Premium Database——>The Pulse Database Video
Looking for interview prep or a coach to help you navigate the process? Check the “Going Forward” section below for more details.
Last year, 85% of students coached received offers.
No bread? No problem! Check out our referral program to unlock resume reviews, the Premium Database, and coaching sessions—for FREE! (see details in the “Going Forward” section)
Recruiting Timeline:
Banking:
Where We’re At:
SA 2025: Agentis Capital opened its application bringing the total bank number up to 115 for the SA 2025 season. As previously mentioned, we will stop tracking this process within a month as we gear up for the SA 2026 season!
FT 2025: Agentis Capital is the only new addition here. There are currently 18 firms actively recruiting for FT 2025. Please reach out if you are looking for coaching!
New SA 2025 Applications:
Agentis Capital: Infrastructure-focused boutique in Canada (SA 2025)
New FT 2025 Applications:
Agentis Capital: Infrastructure-focused boutique in Canada (FT 2025)
See below to gain access to our premium database, updated weekly, which houses the application processes for over 200+ banks/consulting/buyside firms! Gain an edge over everyone else by not having to spend countless hours tracking applications and deadlines.
Consulting:
Where We’re At:
SA 2025: 17 SA 2025 applications have been released so far. Make sure to apply early and often!
FT 2025: 6 applications are open across. We will continue tracking these as we anticipate volume to pick up beginning in August. From now through September, it will be prime time for the FT recruiting season.
SA 2025 released apps:
KPMG: Advisory Intern, Deal Advisory - Financial Due Diligence (SA 2025 - Closed)
PWC: Business Processes Intern (SA 2025 - Closed).
Curtis & Co: Boutique firm (SA 2025 - Closed)
Protiviti: Tech Consulting (SA 2025 - Closed)
RSM: Tech, Risk, and Business Improvement Intern (SA 2025 - Closed)
Deloitte: Business Technology Solutions Summer Scholar (SA 2025 - Closed)
Berkeley Research Group: Associate Consultant Intern (SA 2025)
Oliver Wyman: Summer 2025 Intern (SA 2025 - Closed)
Bain: Associate Consultant Intern (SA 2025)
Cavi Consulting: Consulting Associate Internship (SA 2025)
McKinsey: Summer Business Analyst (SA 2025)
BCG: Associate Consultant Intern (SA 2025)
Redstone Strategy Group: Consulting Intern (SA 2025 - Closed)
KPMG: All Practices including management consulting (SA 2025)
Alpha FMC: Consulting Intern (SA 2025)
DSP Strategy: Consulting Analyst Intern (SA 2025)
FMI Corporation: Strategy Analyst Intern (SA 2025)
FT 2025 released apps:
LEK: Associate Consultant (FT 2025)
Charles River Associates: Associate (FT 2025)
New Markets Advisors: Associate Consultant (FT 2025)
McKinsey: Business Analyst (FT 2025)
OC&C: Associate Consultant (FT 2025)
Qral: Management Consultant (Biotech, FT 2025)
Apply ASAP if you’re interested!
Buyside:
Where We’re At:
SA 2025: Invesco, Guidepost, Capstone Investment Advisors, and Optiver all opened their SA 2025 apps this week. So far ~108 buyside shops have opened applications. Rockefeller Capital Management also reopened its SA 2025 application
SA 2025 released apps:
Invesco: Large asset manager-investments team (SA 2025)
Guidepost: Growth equity (SA 2025)
Rockefeller Capital Management: PE team (SA 2025)
Capstone Investment Advisors: Hedge fund, multi-strat (SA 2025)
The database is updated weekly and contains 200+ Investment Banking and Consulting internships/full-time positions along with:
Interview tips for specific companies
Interview prep material
Applications and deadlines linked so that you can apply with one click
Insider information about the application process
Professionals to network with
Buyside deadlines, interview prep, and people to network with for the sweatiest of students
We send the updated dataset every week with the latest banking and consulting job postings. We released our 60th update today.
Students we have been helping have already landed roles at Blackstone, Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, Citi, and Solomon.
To get access to the database and the weekly updates, you pay a one-time fee of $50 (Venmo: ThePulsePrep / Credit Card: (ThePulsePrep—Stripe.com)) that grants you annual access to the updated database (You can enable purchase protection if concerned). If you don’t find our services helpful, we simply ask for feedback on an area we can improve upon and will refund your $50.
This is a small investment for a huge payout when you secure your dream offer!
Video of Premium Database——>The Pulse Database Video
Market Update:
Poison Pills & Hostile Takeovers
Recently, Southwest Airlines announced the adoption of a poison pill to deter Elliot Investment Management from conducting a hostile takeover of the Company.
POS Airline Lmao
So, what’s a poison pill? Why are they relevant? What’s the ultimate outcome?
Definition: A poison pill is when a company declares to issue additional shares to current shareholders at a steep discount in the event a ‘hostile bidder’ acquires X% of the outstanding shares. They are used to dilute the equity of the bidder.
Poison pills were created in the ‘80s in response to a wave of hostile takeovers. In a hostile takeover, another company or individual looks to acquire a business by the outright purchase of its stock with the intent to dramatically change the course of operations.
Gordon Gecko (Margin Call) King of the Hostile Takeover
Remember when Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44bn in 2022? The early stages of that process were similar to a hostile takeover as Elon was just planning to purchase enough of Twitter’s shares to provide himself with substantial voting power to dictate the course of business. Although, Elon and Twitter did reach a formal agreement to be taken private.
In fact, true hostile takeovers are pretty rare today. Mainly due to the fact that poison pills can be deployed to heavily dilute the ownership of any hostile bidder.
They have altered the M&A landscape to encourage mutual solutions.
The usual outcome is that a “hostile bidder” is brought back to the table to renegotiate the plan to acquire a given company (typically they just end up paying a higher price than previously stated and old management subsequently “leaves the company” instead of being fired)
Once again, reference the Twitter deal. Elon paid more for the company and Parag Aggarwal (previous CEO) quit before being fired. He also received a huge fuckin payout to sweeten the deal ($57.4mm vs. the kind of shitty $1mm salary with $12.5mm stock options)
Poison pills have made it increasingly difficult for activist investors to execute in the landscape of companies worth > $1bn. They can certainly still buy the business, but only after paying too much and providing many concessions to their original terms —both of which can ruin an investment thesis (again, reference Twitter).
Disclosure: Nothing written here is financial advice or should be used for investment decisions.
Learning Point of the Week:
The Single Best Practice for Technicals
It’s the last interview of your Superday at Evercore, you’re sweating bullets and practically brain-dead after 3 consecutive hours or interviewing. You’re praying for a chill final interview, but then a non-MBA senior associate steps into the room.
Your heart sinks to the floor.
He slaps a piece of paper in front of you and immediately starts rattling off the dreaded paper LBO scenario. Shit!
What should you do next?
The single best practice you can do for any numerical technical question is to repeat the numbers provided before proceeding.
Simply say “For full clarification, there is $X of debt, a purchase multiple of Y, an exit multiple of Z….etc” This communicates two things to the interviewer:
You pay attention to detail
You want to do things right the first time
We coach a ton of students and not checking provided numbers with the interviewer is easily the most common mistake made. It’s unfortunate because many of the students are only getting the question wrong because they’re using the wrong numbers. Don’t be that guy.
Just take a minute to ensure you haven’t misheard—this will also provide you with some time to think through the steps needed to arrive at the right answer.
Going Forward:
Building a great PE tool (targeting summer 2025 release). Please let us know what you want to see!
Coaching Details:
1 hour session = $50. (Venmo @ThePulsePrep or Credit Card: ThePulsePrep—Stripe.com
30-minute session = $30. Venmo @ThePulsePrep or Credit Card: ThePulsePrep—Stripe.com
Email us with your availability and we will be happy to schedule a session @[email protected]
Students we coached for SA 2025 have received offers at Goldman, JP Morgan, Evercore, and many other firms. Roughly 85% of those coached received offers last year!
Please reach out to us with any questions about recruiting or if you’re interested in meeting the team! ([email protected])
We are happy to chat, review resumes, or help set up a coaching session
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“The Pulse” #60