Glossary · Deal process
Corporate development
Also called corp dev
Definition
Corporate development (corp dev) is the team inside a company that finds acquisition targets, runs the deals with outside advisers and hands the businesses over to integration. Corp dev teams are often small, which is why they care about how fast a data room lets them get through diligence.
Where corporate development comes up
On this site, in our guides and in the conversations we've written up.
Podcast · Reinventing Professionals Perspectives from the SS&C Intralinks AI Bootcamp Torben Rankine, Director of Corporate Sales at SS&C Intralinks, reflects on the company's second annual AI Bootcamp and how corporate development teams are putting AI to work. 
Podcast · Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast Datasite's CHRO on women as dealmakers and the future of work LaMere describes Datasite as a leading technology provider for the M&A industry, built to empower dealmakers across investment banking, corporate development, private equity and the legal professions. 
Video · SS&C Intralinks Cisco and Accenture on using diligence AI to plan integration before close Corporate development leaders from Cisco and Accenture and the Transaction Advisors Institute's research lead discuss survey data on AI in due diligence. 
Video · DealRoom How Vertex plans integration during diligence, and where AI helps The biggest mistake he sees corporate development teams make is relying on AI more than on their people. 
Video · DealRoom How a small corp dev team uses AI, from blind teasers to document review When a blind teaser lands at Sellers Dorsey, the corporate development team pastes it into a large language model and asks which company it thinks this is, based on the context in the teaser.
Podcast · Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast Datasite's CHRO on women as dealmakers and the future of work LaMere describes Datasite as a leading technology provider for the M&A industry, built to empower dealmakers across investment banking, corporate development, private equity and the legal professions. Video · SS&C Intralinks Cisco and Accenture on using diligence AI to plan integration before close Corporate development leaders from Cisco and Accenture and the Transaction Advisors Institute's research lead discuss survey data on AI in due diligence. Video · DealRoom How Vertex plans integration during diligence, and where AI helps The biggest mistake he sees corporate development teams make is relying on AI more than on their people. Video · DealRoom How a small corp dev team uses AI, from blind teasers to document review When a blind teaser lands at Sellers Dorsey, the corporate development team pastes it into a large language model and asks which company it thinks this is, based on the context in the teaser. Related terms
Post-merger integration Combining two businesses after a deal closes: people, systems, processes and customers. Buy-side The buyer's side of a deal: the acquirer or investor, and the advisers who help them find, check and price a target. Binding offer A buyer's final offer after due diligence, usually with a marked-up purchase agreement attached. Bolt-on acquisition A smaller company bought to add to an existing platform business, common in private equity. Carve-out The sale of a division or business unit that has to be separated from its parent company. Clean team A small, ring-fenced group allowed to see a competitor's sensitive data during a deal, under strict rules. Distressed M&A Buying or selling a business in financial trouble, often under time pressure or in insolvency. Exclusivity period A set time in which the seller agrees to negotiate with one buyer only.