What does this skill do, and when should you use it?
This skill supports buyer research and screening for sell-side M&A engagements. It uses the target’s business, financial profile, assets, valuation expectations, and seller preferences to organize strategic buyers and financial sponsors. It assesses strategic fit, financial capacity, M&A track record, recent activity, and outreach paths, then tiers the candidates by priority. Deliverables include buyer tabs, Tier 1 contact mapping, summary statistics, and a one-page buyer-universe summary.
Takes in the target’s company description, sector, business model, revenue, EBITDA, growth profile, key assets, valuation range, and seller preferences; identifies strategic buyers as direct competitors, adjacent players, vertical integrators, and platform builders; identifies financial buyers as platform investors, add-on buyers, and growth-equity investors; records sector, revenue, fund size, sector focus, portfolio overlap, recent activity, M&A track record, financial capacity, likelihood, and priority; assigns buyers to Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3; maps Tier 1 decision makers, relationship status, known constraints, and best approach channel; and produces an Excel workbook plus a one-page buyer-universe summary.
- An investment-banking team preparing a sell-side mandate needs a first-pass universe of strategic buyers and financial sponsors.
- An M&A advisor wants to assess direct competitors, adjacent companies, and vertical-integration candidates for a target.
- A deal team is looking for private-equity platforms or portfolio companies that could support a bolt-on acquisition.
- A transaction lead needs to sequence outreach using fit, acquisition history, financial capacity, and likelihood.
- A seller wants certain buyers included or excluded and needs the list updated as process feedback arrives.
How do you install this skill?
- Do not treat unsourced revenue, transaction history, fund size, contacts, or acquisition likelihood as verified facts; retain source, date, and confidence for each item.
- Obtain user confirmation of data scope, recipients, and compliance constraints before using confidential information or initiating outreach; the skill provides no privacy, antitrust, or cross-border data controls.
- The skill specifies an Excel workbook and one-page summary but provides no template or generation tool, so manual formatting and review may be required.
The skill is located at plugins/vertical-plugins/investment-banking/skills/buyer-list/SKILL.md. For Cowork, open Settings → Plugins → Add plugin, paste https://github.com/anthropics/financial-services, and select the relevant agents or verticals. For Claude Code, add the marketplace with claude plugin marketplace add anthropics/financial-services, then install the vertical with claude plugin install investment-banking@claude-for-financial-services. The source does not document a standalone installation procedure for buyer-list.
tmp="$(mktemp -d)"
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/anthropics/financial-services.git "$tmp"
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -R "$tmp/plugins/vertical-plugins/investment-banking/skills/buyer-list" ~/.claude/skills/
rm -rf "$tmp"Generated from the source repository and skill path; it copies only this skill's folder. If the author's install steps above differ, follow those first. To scope it to one project, replace ~/.claude/skills with that project's .claude/skills.
How do you use this skill?
Once installed, send your agent any of these to trigger it:
- Build a buyer list for this sell-side M&A process
After installing the investment-banking vertical, prompt it with “Build a buyer list for this sell-side M&A process” or use trigger phrases such as “buyer list,” “buyer universe,” or “potential acquirers.” Supply the target’s sector, business model, revenue, EBITDA, growth, key assets, valuation range, and seller preferences, including any buyers to include or exclude. The README also lists /buyer-list as the related command; the source does not define a fixed input template or external-data workflow.
What are this skill's strengths and limitations?
- Covers strategic buyers, private-equity platforms, add-on buyers, and growth-equity investors.
- Provides an end-to-end structure from target understanding through prioritization, contact mapping, and deliverables.
- Explicitly addresses recent M&A activity, antitrust concerns, fund vintage, deployment pace, and seller preferences.
- Produces transaction-oriented outputs, including an Excel workbook and a one-page buyer-universe summary.
- The SKILL.md contains no company, transaction, or market data, so conclusions depend on supplied or separately obtained information.
- The source does not document built-in web research, data connectors, or automated fact verification.
- No test suite, sample output, or specific Excel-platform compatibility evidence is provided.
- The Tier 1–3 counts are process guidance, not a guarantee that enough qualified buyers will be identified.
How does this skill compare with similar options?
Side by side with related skills; every score comes from the same FSRS standard.
| Skill | FS score | Stars | Last updated | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M&A Buyer Universe Builder this page ✓ Anthropic · Official | 52 · Use with care | ★ 40k | 1mo ago | Apache-2.0 |
| Financial Data Pack Builder ✓ Anthropic · Official | 45 · Not recommended | ★ 40k | 1mo ago | Apache-2.0 |
| M&A Accretion & Dilution Model ✓ Anthropic · Official | 51 · Use with care | ★ 40k | 1mo ago | Apache-2.0 |
| M&A Process Letter Drafter ✓ Anthropic · Official | 47 · Use with care | ★ 40k | 1mo ago | Apache-2.0 |
| PE Deal Sourcing Assistant ✓ Anthropic · Official | 48 · Use with care | ★ 40k | 1mo ago | Apache-2.0 |
How did FollowSkills review this skill?
The skill describes buyer research and prioritization only, with no malware, covert exfiltration, or disproportionate permissions. The repository requires qualified human review and disclaims investment advice; the Apache-2.0 license and stated official provenance add some attribution evidence. Points are deducted because sensitive transaction-data handling, data flows, external-contact confirmation, least privilege, rollback, and output isolation are unspecified.
The workflow is internally coherent from target understanding through strategic buyers, financial sponsors, prioritization, contact mapping, and deliverables, with defined table fields. Points are deducted for missing input validation, missing-data handling, dependency availability, key-path tests, and diagnosable failure feedback; static calibration limits the score to 10 or below.
The sell-side M&A scenario, intended use, trigger phrases, buyer categories, and tiering scheme are clearly stated. Points are deducted because non-fit cases, required data sources, environment assumptions, Chinese-language support, and mainland-China network reachability are not specified.
The document has clear stepwise information architecture, structured tables, practical notes on antitrust and seller confirmation, and repository-level Apache-2.0 licensing, CI validation, and contribution guidance. Points are deducted because the skill lacks its own version, changelog, named maintenance responsibility, dependency notes, FAQ, and systematic limitations or troubleshooting guidance.
The workflow covers buyer identification, fit assessment, prioritization, and Tier 1 contact mapping, and specifies an Excel workbook plus a one-page summary as intended outputs. Points are deducted because no representative output, template, or direct-generation mechanism is provided, while research quality, completeness, and formatting still require substantial human review; static calibration caps this at 7.
The categories, fields, and workflow are directly auditable, and repository CI provides plugin validation and secret scanning. Points are deducted because those checks do not validate buyer-list factual accuracy or key-path behavior, and there is no committed test suite, third-party execution evidence, sample result, or source-citation method; static review cannot support a higher score.
Open a dimension to read why it scored that way
Evidence confidence：Low — Mostly static review, author material or a limited demo; useful for discovery, not high-risk decisions.
See the full review method →