User Instructions

FAQs

• General
  • Do you have a README file or something similar to help me get started?
    Yes, we do. We have a 3.5-minute video to help you learn the basic functions of the M&A recommendation service. Here is the YouTube link .
  • What is the major difference between FMeasure M&A recommendation and database search?
    Let’s use acquirer recommendation as an example to explain this. Most database searches only search for M&A deals that previously happened. Then users need to use their own knowledge and imagination to figure out what type of business are candidates for this type of deal. After knowing this, users will have to run more database searches to find a list of companies and check if these candidates have funding and intention to close the deal. FMeasure M&A recommendation system automates this process by using artificial intelligence to reason over information of millions of companies across the world and hundreds of thousands of previous M&A deals. In fact, to process a single user query, FMeasure needs to run hundreds of searches internally to generate and score candidates.
• Search
  • Is there any word limit for Target’s Business box?
    No. users are allowed to put text of any length in the Target’s Business box. However, to retrieve the most relevant information, it is a good idea to keep the query short and precise. 
  • What language can I use to do search?
    In text input fields, including “Target’s Business” and “Acquirer’s Business” , users are allowed to type in English, Chinese and Japanese. Internally, Japanese and Chinese are first translated into English and then the search starts. In some scenarios, English is also translated into other languages to search for information in their native languages. FMeasure is working hard to expand the list of allowed languages.
  • How many results are returned for each query?
    FMeasure M&A recommendation service returns up to 250 results for each search.
  • How much time should each search take?
    It depends. If the search is on something very specific, the results will be returned in less than 1 second. If the search is on something very general, then the search can take several seconds to finish. If a search does not return you with results after >30 seconds, you should refresh the page and search again if needed.
  • What is the difference between setting the region before search and filtering results using region after the search?
    FMeasure knowledgebase contains information of millions of companies, and may find tens of thousands of candidates for a given search.  For every search, up to 250  results are sent back to users. Setting “regions” before search starts will force the search to return candidates in the desired regions. Filtering results using “region” after the search is done will NOT change the returned results. Instead, it only hides some candidates in the returned results.  In an extreme case, filtering results using “region” after the search is done may produce 0 results, while setting “region” before search starts may result in 250 results.
  • How can I specify acquirer's neighbors and target's neighbors?
    Sometime, users have some ideas on what companies they are looking for and like to find more companies like them. To satisfy this requirements, we provide “Neighbors” input fields. Users can put multiple companies (represented as stock tickerss or webpages) in the input field separated by “;”.  For example,  Softbank’s stock ticker is jp:9984, CICC’s stock ticker is hk: 3908, IBM’s website is www.ibm.com and Apple’s stock ticker is nasdaq:AAPL. Users can put 9984; 3908; www.ibm.com; AAPL in the “Neighbors” field. From the search results, we can see that Ticker 3908 corresponds to two different companies. To rule out companies that we do not want, we can include stock exchange as well and use: 9984; hk:3908; www.ibm.com; AAPL to search.
  • Can I do a typical database search using your service?
    Yes. For acquirer recommendation, if you are searching for acquirers working on X, you can put X in Acquirer’s Business field and then do search.  FMeasure maintains a large knowledgebase containing information of millions of companies.  Different from a typical database search which only considers keywords, company names, etc, FMeasure also takes filings, recent talks, etc into consideration. Users can search in a similar manor for target screening.
• System
  • Does FMeasure M&A service support mobile devices?
    The short answer is no. FMeasure M&A service is built for desktop users and should work with the recent versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Edge, etc. Most (not all) functions of M&A service also work on mobile devices though.

Use Cases for M&A:

• I want to find acquirers for a company doing the business of artificial intelligence for customer service, based on my estimation, the acquirer should pay around 50M for this acquisition. How can I search for candidates using this criteria?
  click on Acquirers button at the upper left corner to switch to Acquirer recommendation mode; put artificial intelligence for customer service in Target’s Business, 50 in  Cash Needed For This Deal, and then click on Find Acquirers to start the search. 
• My customer told me that IBM showed interests in acquiring them, can you find more companies like IBM such that we can check with them to see if they will also be interested?
    click on Acquirers button at the upper left corner to switch to Acquirer recommendation mode;  put ibm in Acquirer’s Neighbors, and then click on Find Acquirers to start the search.
• Can you list all companies (as potential acquirers) doing online payment?
  click on Acquirers button at the upper left corner to switch to Acquirer recommendation mode; put online payment in Acquirer’s Business, and then click on Find Acquirers to start the search.
• Can you list all companies (as potential targets) doing online payment?
  click on Targets button at the upper left corner to switch to Target Screening mode; put online payment in Target’s Business, and then click on Find Targets to start the search.
• My client wants to acquire a business doing online payment in the US, can you find such companies?
  click on Targets button at the upper left corner to switch to Target Screening mode; put online payment in Target’s Business field, put United States of America in Target’s region field, and then click on Find Targets to start the search.

Use Cases for PE:

• I like to check who may be interested in acquiring one of my portfolio companies.
  click on Acquirers button at the upper left corner to switch to Acquirer recommendation mode; put your company’s business in Target’s Business field; click on More Filters and put you estimated deal price in the Estimated Deal Price field. The unit in this field is M USD. If the price is 50M USD, just put 50 there. Once everything is done, click on Find Acquirers button to start the search.

Use Cases for VC:

• I am interested in investing a company, but not sure if the investment will pay back. I like to find out who may be interested in acquiring such a business.
  click on Acquirers button at the upper left corner to switch to Acquirer recommendation mode; put your company’s business in Target’s Business field; click on More Filters and put you estimated deal price in the Estimated Deal Price field. The unit in this field is M USD. If the price is 50M USD, just put 50 there. Once everything is done, click on Find Acquirers button to start the search. Note: This service only searches for who may be interested in this business at present.
• I heard block chain is quite hot these days, I am traveling to Canada and like to find out what companies in Canada are working on this.
  click on Targets button at the upper left corner to switch to Target Screening mode; put block chain in Target’s Business field; put Canada in the Target’s Region field. Then click on Find Targets button to start the search.
• I planned to invest on FMeasure Inc. (www.fmeasure.com), but they told me that they do not need new funding. Now I like to find other companies like FMeasure.
  click on Targets button at the upper left corner to switch to Target Screening mode; put www.fmeasure.com in Target’s Neighbors field. Then click on Find Targets button to start the search.