[pdq]

This is an impressively thorough and quite insightful M&A overview.

However, it is completely one-sided toward the buyer (ie GitLab).

As a seller, I'd be wary of going through even a fraction of the pre-term-sheet diligence and disclosure, without getting to a ballpark on acquisition price (or price methodology) beforehand.

Also, they don't mention, but having escrow set up as an insurance in case the acquirer backs out also seems necessary (ie % of the deal held with third party). Otherwise you are basically giving away all your company secrets and time, and if they back out, you get nothing.

I'd guess YCombinator has something equivalent from the seller side. It would be great if they shared their M&A handbook at some point in the future, although I understand it's probably considered "secret sauce".

[fountainofage]

It's basically don't waste your time with corp dev. http://www.paulgraham.com/corpdev.html

You hit the nail on the head that it's way too much work when there's not even a contingent offer on the table. A real buyout would come in with either a stated sum, or a methodology for how that sum will be calculated.