Creating a Sell Side Presentation - How to not shit on the company?

I have been tasked with creating a short pitch deck as part of an interview for an analyst position. I can choose buy side or sell side and have to pick a company and some targets that it should either acquire or be bought by.

My issue is when I am looking at the possibility of doing sell side it feels like I am essentially insulting the company. Ie. I am saying "hey, here is why you aren't cutting it as a standalone business and you should sell yourself to one of these big dogs who will do it right."

Any advice on how not to do this?

Bonus if someone would like to chime in on how to find companies to fit this project in the first place? Currently I am just scanning different stock exchanges for low and micro cap companies and reading what they offer.