"The content of this book is based on the final report of a research project carried out by an international team of researchers for the European Commission's Directorate General for Research"--copyright p.

The process of identifying and evaluating a target firm, completing a deal after its negotiation and announcement, and then integrating a target firm after legal combination is a multi-year process with uncertain returns to acquiring firms. Research on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) is progressing rapidly yet it remains fragmented across multiple research perspectives that largely examine different acquisition phases separately and coincide with a focus on different research variables. As a result, research fragmentation means that a researcher in one area may be unaware of research from related areas that is likely relevant. This contributes to research silos with M&A research displaying different traditions, starting points, and assumptions. Mergers and Acquisitions: A Research Overview summarizes the frontier in M&A research and provides insights into where it can be expanded. It undertakes the needed integration and reconciliation of research in order to derive practical knowledge for managing acquisitions from beginning to end, providing a summary of what is known and its implications for future research. This concise overview reconciles and integrates the state of the art in our understanding of mergers and acquisitions, providing an essential first stopping point in the research journey of students and scholars working in this area.

Focuses on the studies of the advances in mergers and acquisitions from scholars in different countries, with different research questions, relying on different theoretical perspectives. This title helps scholars think about mergers and acquisitions in different ways.

In a business climate marked by escalating global competition and industry disruption, successful mergers and acquisitions are increasingly vital to the growth and profitability of many corporations. If history is any guide, 60 to 70 per cent of new mergers will fail – and will destroy shareholder value. To date, analyses of the M&A failure rate tend to focus on individual causes – e.g., culture clashes, valuation methods, or CEO overconfidence – rather than examining the problem holistically. The Value Killers is the first book based on a holistic analysis of successful and unsuccessful transactions. Based on research, interviews with top executives, and case studies, this book identifies the key causes of failures and successes and offers prescriptions to increase the odds that future transactions will deliver all the anticipated synergies. The Value Killers offers practical advice in the form of 5 Golden Rules. These rules will help managers and boards to ensure that target companies are properly valued; potential synergies and risks are identified in advance; checks and balances are installed to make sure that the pros and cons of the transaction are rationally and objectively evaluated; mechanisms are created that will trigger termination of bad deals; and obstacles to successful post-merger integrations are assessed (and solutions developed) before the deal closes. Each chapter includes questions for executives considering future M&As to allow them to see whether they are on the right track or not.