Before co-founding Collected Strategies, Ed Hammond spent a decade on the M&A beat, first as a correspondent for the Financial Times from 2013 to 2015, then as a senior deals reporter at Bloomberg through 2023.

In a new guest column for FT Alphaville, Ed draws on that decade to explain how deal information actually gets out and it's rarely the cinematic version. He walks through the ordinary mechanics of a leak: the pull of ego and rivalry among sources and advisers; the rise of "Mystery Men," anonymous tipsters tied to trading syndicates who now account for a meaningful share of the tips reporters receive; the rarer, more deliberate tactical leak; and, sometimes, plain bad luck.

It's a rare inside look at deal-leak mechanics from someone who spent years chasing them down and provides useful context for any company managing information discipline around a live transaction.

Read Ed's full column here.