As merger discussions initiated between companies progress, it can be progressively more difficult to call off the proposed merger, as managements become increasingly politically committed to the deal and various advisors, some of which will often not be paid if the deal does not go through, press with increasing urgency to complete. The result is an urge-to-merge, which may outweigh one or both parties’ better judgment. Resisting the urge-to-merge requires careful pre-merger due diligence as well as a pre-discussion identification of both “deal-killers” and hard criteria (value, price) for the deal to go through as part of a thorough ‘business case’.