---
name: buyer-universe-identifier
description: "Generates a structured buyer universe for a company being sold — mapping strategic acquirers, financial sponsors, and adjacent-industry players into named categories with acquisition rationale, fit scoring, and outreach prioritization. Use when mapping the market for a sell-side mandate, building a buyer list for a divestiture, or pressure-testing who would realistically pay a premium for an asset."
argument-hint: "[business-description] [deal-context]"
allowed-tools: ["Read"]
---

# Buyer Universe Identifier

## Purpose
Produce a comprehensive, categorized map of who would realistically acquire a business and why — covering strategic buyers, financial sponsors, and adjacent-industry players — with a synergy-grounded rationale for each category and a prioritized shortlist. Replaces the ad-hoc, relationship-driven buyer list with a defensible market map a deal team can take into a sell-side process.

## When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Build a buyer list or buyer universe for a sell-side M&A mandate
- Identify potential acquirers for a company, division, or asset being divested
- Map strategic vs. financial buyers for a transaction
- Pressure-test which buyer categories would pay the highest premium
- Prepare the buyer-mapping section of a sell-side pitch or process memo
- Brainstorm adjacent or non-obvious acquirers beyond the obvious competitors

## Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- **Business description**: What the company does, in 3–5 sentences (products/services, model)
- **Industry and sub-sector**: The vertical and the specific niche within it
- **Financial profile**: Revenue, EBITDA, growth rate, margin profile (ranges acceptable)
- **Geographic footprint**: Where it operates and where it sells
- **Strategic assets**: The crown jewels — IP, customer base, brand, distribution, data, regulatory licenses, talent
- **Deal context**: Why selling, target outcome (clean exit / partial / recap), and any timing constraints
- **Buyers to exclude**: Any party off-limits for competitive, confidentiality, or relationship reasons

If financial profile or strategic assets are missing, proceed with the business description and flag where the rationale is constrained by missing detail.

## Instructions

### Step 1: Asset Thesis — Establish What Is Being Bought
Before mapping buyers, articulate the 3–5 reasons this asset is valuable to an acquirer. Frame each as a transferable advantage, not a description:
- What does the buyer get that it cannot easily build? (IP, installed base, regulatory moat, talent, data)
- What does the buyer get that accelerates an existing plan? (geographic entry, product gap, channel access)
- What financial characteristic makes this attractive? (margin profile, recurring revenue, growth rate, cash conversion)

This thesis anchors every buyer rationale that follows. A buyer category only belongs on the map if it values one or more of these assets.

### Step 2: Map Across Three Buyer Classes

For each class, generate **named buyer categories** (archetypes), not just individual company names. Under each category, provide: the acquisition rationale, the specific asset(s) from Step 1 they value, the likely deal structure, and 3–6 illustrative example acquirers.

**Class A — Strategic Buyers (4–6 categories)**
Operating companies that acquire for synergy. For each category:
- **Category name**: e.g., "Direct competitors seeking consolidation," "Platform players adding a product line," "Vertically integrating suppliers/customers"
- **Why they pay a premium**: The specific synergy (cost takeout, cross-sell, defensive, capability acquisition)
- **Synergy type**: Revenue synergy / Cost synergy / Defensive / Capability — label explicitly
- **Premium potential**: High / Medium / Low — with reasoning tied to synergy magnitude
- **Example acquirers**: 3–6 named or archetype-named companies

**Class B — Financial Sponsors (3–5 categories)**
PE firms, growth equity, family offices, search funds, and platform-building portfolio companies. For each category:
- **Category name**: e.g., "Sector-focused PE building a platform," "PE add-on via existing portfolio company," "Growth equity for the margin-expansion thesis"
- **Investment thesis fit**: Why this asset fits their model — platform vs. bolt-on, hold period, value-creation lever
- **Value-creation angle**: Buy-and-build, operational improvement, multiple arbitrage, leverage
- **Premium potential**: High / Medium / Low — noting that sponsors typically pay below strategics absent a buy-and-build thesis
- **Example sponsors**: 3–6 named firms or sponsor archetypes active in the sector

**Class C — Adjacent-Industry Players (3–4 categories)**
The non-obvious acquirers — companies one step removed who would value the asset for entry, convergence, or capability. For each category:
- **Category name**: e.g., "Adjacent-vertical players seeking diversification," "Tech entrants buying into a legacy category," "International acquirers seeking market entry"
- **The convergence thesis**: Why this adjacency is acquiring into the space now (market trend, tech shift, regulatory change)
- **What they value that strategics overlook**: The asset reframed for an outsider's strategy
- **Premium potential**: High / Medium / Low
- **Example acquirers**: 3–6 named companies or archetypes

### Step 3: Score and Prioritize the Top 8
Across all three classes, select the 8 highest-priority buyer categories and rank them. Score each on:
- **Strategic fit (1–5)**: How directly they value the asset thesis
- **Ability to pay (1–5)**: Balance sheet, dry powder, or financing capacity
- **Likelihood of engaging (1–5)**: Acquisitiveness, recent activity, strategic gaps
- **Premium potential (High/Med/Low)**: Carry over from Step 2

Present as a ranked table. The highest-ranked category should be the one combining strong fit, ability to pay, and genuine premium potential — not just the most obvious competitor.

### Step 4: Process Implications
Brief guidance for the deal team:
- **Sequencing**: Which categories to approach first vs. hold as backups
- **Confidentiality risk**: Which buyers (typically direct competitors) require the tightest information control
- **Auction vs. targeted**: Whether the universe supports a broad auction or a targeted process
- **Tension creators**: Which two or three categories, if engaged together, create competitive pressure on price

## Output Format
- **Structure**: Asset thesis → three buyer classes with named categories → ranked top-8 table → process implications
- **Length**: 1,100–1,500 words
- **Format**: Structured document — named categories with labeled sub-fields; top-8 as a table
- **Sections**: Asset Thesis → Strategic Buyers → Financial Sponsors → Adjacent-Industry Players → Top 8 Prioritized (table) → Process Implications
- **Tone**: Sell-side managing director — analytical, commercially sharp, oriented toward maximizing competitive tension and price

## Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] The asset thesis lists 3–5 transferable advantages, and every buyer category ties to at least one
- [ ] All three buyer classes are populated with the required category counts (4–6 strategic, 3–5 financial, 3–4 adjacent)
- [ ] Every category has a labeled synergy/thesis type and a premium rating with reasoning — not just an assertion
- [ ] At least 2 adjacent or non-obvious categories appear that a default competitor list would miss
- [ ] The top-8 ranking is scored across all four dimensions and the #1 pick is justified beyond "most obvious"
- [ ] No excluded buyers appear; confidentiality-sensitive categories are flagged in process implications

## Notes
- The value of this map is in the adjacent and financial categories — most deal teams already know the direct competitors. Push hardest on the non-obvious acquirers who would pay the entry premium.
- Strategics usually outbid sponsors on synergy-rich assets; sponsors win when there is a clean buy-and-build thesis. Reflect this in premium ratings rather than rating everything "High."
- Where the business description is thin on financials, anchor rationale on strategic assets and explicitly note where a fuller financial profile would sharpen the buyer thesis.
- This map is a starting point for a curated buyer list — recommend validating each top category against recent M&A activity and current dry powder before outreach.

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## How to use this skill

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**Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:**

1. Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
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