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About this interview
A technical interview on IB Core Technicals, pitched at the medium level. A voice AI interviewer leads the conversation, adapts its questions to your answers, keeps you on topic, and afterward gives you honest, specific feedback on where you were strong and where to improve. Expect roughly 30 minutes.
What you'll be assessed on
Compute accretion/dilution for both cash/debt-funded and stock-funded deals with exact pro forma EPS
Apply the earnings-yield-vs-cost-of-financing and P/E-comparison mental shortcuts to predict accretion/dilution before doing the full math
Build a goodwill calculation from purchase price, book value, and fair-value write-ups, and explain how post-deal amortization/D&A drags on pro forma earnings
Distinguish revenue synergies from cost synergies in terms of market skepticism and their effect on the accretion/dilution threshold
Explain deal-structure and exchange-ratio mechanics and basic deal-protection devices
Topics covered
Accretion/Dilution Core ConceptCash/Debt-Funded Deal MathStock-Funded Deal MathPurchase Price Allocation & GoodwillWrite-Up D&A DragSynergiesDeal Structure Choice & SignalingExchange Ratio MechanicsDeal ProtectionAccretion/Dilution vs Good DealAntitrust & Regulatory Basics
A few sample questions
Just examples to set expectations - the real interview has many more and adapts to your responses.
“In plain terms, what does it mean for an acquisition to be 'accretive' versus 'dilutive'?
“That same acquirer has $200 million of net income on 100 million existing shares — $2.00 of standalone EPS. After issuing the 20 million new shares from the last question to buy a target with $52 million of net income, what's the pro forma EPS, and is the deal accretive or dilutive?
“Going back to the debt-funded deal — 12% accretive before the write-up was added, 8% accretive after. If management also expects $5 million of annual after-tax cost synergies, fully realized in year one, what's the new pro forma EPS and accretion, using the post-write-up figures?