Bid letters, lined up
A structured form for comparing up to six buyer bid letters on the standard dimensions, plus an analysis prompt.
A competitive M&A process produces several bid letters that look similar at a glance and vary meaningfully on the page. Price, structure, financing certainty, RWI assumption, diligence status, exclusivity ask, signing timeline, notable conditions. Reading them well takes time. Comparing them well takes even longer.
The bid letter comparator structures the comparison. Add a bid block per bidder (up to six). Fill in the standard fields. The tool produces a side-by-side table and generates a prompt you can paste into your AI tool of choice for a narrative analysis ranking each bid on each dimension.
Why the structured form matters
Pasting raw bid letters into an AI tool produces inconsistent extraction quality. Structured input means the comparison is apples to apples on every dimension. The narrative analysis prompt then ranks the bids on each dimension and surfaces the most important differences for the seller to weigh.
Where the tool helps and where it does not
It helps with the orientation work that sell-side counsel and bankers do before the substantive negotiation. The structured comparison surfaces gaps in bid letters that warrant follow-up questions, and the AI narrative surfaces the differences that should drive the negotiation strategy.
It does not pick the winning bid. That decision depends on the seller’s priorities (cash vs structure vs speed vs certainty), the seller’s read on the bidders’ ability to execute, and the seller’s view on the strategic fit. Those are conversations the seller has with the banker and counsel, not with the tool.
The deeper essay on AI-assisted bid scoring in M&A processes is here.
Walter Allison is a corporate attorney in Denver. He writes here about M&A, private equity, and venture capital structure.
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