Cristian Anastasiu recounts the personal journey that planted the seeds and led to his Mergers & Acquisitions career
Mergers & Acquisitions is personal
I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs – or rather, ex-entrepreneurs. When the communists came to power in Eastern Europe after World War II, they confiscated or nationalized all privately owned businesses, including those belonging to my grandparents and granduncles.
Growing up in Romania, my family rarely spoke about the old businesses. In that new world order, having once been a business owner was a major drawback – a stain on one’s past better left unmentioned, or erased from memory altogether. Yet from the untold stories, from what was said between the lines and what wasn’t said at all, I could feel the anguish my relatives felt at having had the work of a lifetime taken away without any compensation or acknowledgment.
Ironically, it was – among other factors – the absence of entrepreneurship and small businesses that would ultimately lead to the communism’s collapse not long after my family and I left Romania for Germany in the early 1980s.
Fast forward fifteen years.
I found myself living and working in San Francisco and Silicon Valley – the epicenter of the entrepreneurial world. During that time, I worked at Cisco, a company that had essentially written the playbook on M&A in the technology space. One of the key drivers behind Cisco’s legendary growth in the 1990s – and its rise to become the most valuable company on the planet in early 2000 – was its discipline in identifying, executing, and integrating acquisitions. One of my roles there put me at the center of that machine: leading the integration of acquired companies’ sales organizations, including Aironet and Altiga, into Cisco’s broader sales force.
From Cisco, I stepped into the CEO role of the North American division of a global ERP company – itself the product of a German parent acquiring a U.S. business. My integration experience translated directly, and I leaned on it from day one.
When my boss, the founder of the company, later decided to sell the business, I found myself on the other side of the table. A long process unfolded, a buyer was eventually found, and we were acquired. We were the platform for what later became Infor. It was my first time experiencing a sale from the inside – and it would prove to be one of the most instructive experiences of my career.
After leaving, I began conversations with several M&A firms, exploring the idea of acquiring an IT company and continuing my journey in technology. During one of those conversations, something unexpected happened: the firm I was speaking with recruited me – as an M&A advisor.
As we talked through what that role would look like, something clicked. Reflecting on the sale of the ERP business, I could see clearly what we had done well – and what we had missed. We had no M&A advisor on our side. As a result, we skipped critical steps, including running offers simultaneously, which would have both streamlined the process and, most importantly, increased the final price by as much as 20%.
That experience changed how I see M&A. I had a story to tell – and real value to deliver.
I decided to become an M&A advisor. This role lets me bring together everything I’ve built: deep experience in technology, firsthand knowledge of what it means to run, integrate and sell a company, and a proven process that consistently delivers results for business owners.
That was over twenty-three years ago, and I’ve never looked back.
In a way, it also lets me honor something older than my career. My grandparents never had the chance to decide the fate of what they built. Every client I work with does – and helping them get that right matters to me in ways that go beyond the transaction.