Bausch & Lomb may favor a deal with Warburg Pincus, but the ties between rival suitor American Medical Optics runs deep. How do we know? NewsVisual is a website we just discovered that shows the links between key individuals involved in mergers and acquisitions. The diagrams can be sort of overwhelming but the Website is pretty darn interesting for M&A wonks.
    
Each deal they dissect comes with a chart that connects people and companies involved. Click on the person and a detailed box comes up with their biographical information, including employment history and education. 
    
For example, NewsVisual points out that Advanced Medical’s SVP/chief accounting officer Robert Gallagher was a vice president at Bausch & Lomb until 2001. Also, Franklin Jepson, a 16-year Bausch & Lomb veteran who was there until 1999, has past ties to Robert Palmisano and William Link, who are both current members of the board at Advanced Medical, according to NewsVisual. 
     
NewsVisual’s latest entry focuses on connections between Warrenn Buffett and Kraft. Buffett has reportedly acquired a stake in the company, at a time when Nelson Pelz is also scooping up shares.

So does Buffett have an “in” there? According to NewsVisual its Marla Gottschalk, the CEO of Pampered Chef–a Berkshire Hathaway company.  Gottschalk spent more than a decade at Kraft, most recently as Senior Vice President, Financial Planning and Investor Relations, the Website says. 
 
As for the Transocean and GlobalSantaFe tie up, NewsVisual says look no further than the board of directors for connections:

“Michael Talbert (Transocean’s Chairman) and John Whitmore (a director at GlobalSantaFe) strikes us as the most compelling relationship that got these two oil drillers together; both are longtime directors of El Paso Corp.” 
     
“Another connection that may have helped push the companies into an agreement is shared between GlobalSantaFe Chairman Robert E. Rose and Transocean director and former Chairman Victor Grijalva - both are currently directors of the American Petroleum Institute.” 

(Photo credit: Warren Buffett, Reuters file)

(Image credit: Kraft corporate Website)