case library / m&a and investment decisions
Apex Financial Acquires Horizon Card
A medium m&a and investment decisions case, candidate-led, built for live practice with an AI interviewer that grades like a coach.
- Fig ma
- candidate-led
- medium
- ~30 min
- 2 exhibits
Apex Financial is a large US credit-card issuer weighing an acquisition of Horizon Card, a mid-size issuer. Unlike most card issuers, Horizon owns its own payment network -- it doesn't route transactions over an external rail. Apex's CEO has asked for a go/no-go recommendation in four weeks. You're leading the diligence workstream. How would you approach this?
What happens when you run it live
Your interviewer holds answers to 5 clarifying questions candidates usually ask, so opening the case correctly gets rewarded. The case unfolds over 6 phases, with 2 exhibits handed to you at the right moments. You structure, do the math out loud, and close with a recommendation. Then you get a graded report across structure, quant, insight, synthesis, and communication, with the specific moments that cost you points. The exhibits, numbers, and answer key stay inside the live session, the way a real interviewer keeps the case packet on their side of the table.
How to approach a m&a and investment decisions case
Acquisition and investment cases ask whether a deal or a capital project is worth doing. The spine is almost always standalone value, plus synergies or incremental cash flows, versus price and risk. Interviewers expect you to separate the value of the asset as it is from the value the buyer adds.
Bring the finance instincts: payback period, break-even, simple NPV logic, and cannibalization when the new thing eats the old thing's revenue. Strong candidates also name the deal-breaker risks (integration, regulation, construction lag, financing) and end with a clear go or no-go with conditions.
Run Apex Financial Acquires Horizon Card live, free. About 30 minutes, graded in the same sitting.
Start practicing freefree · no card · graded in minutes