Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Merger and Acquisition Problems


When corporations announce mergers or acquisitions they love to give the reasons why there is a premium invariably paid by the acquirer to shareholders of the company being acquired.

After all, there has to be an incentive to sell the business. And sometimes, that premium of the targeted company’s book or operating value can be quite high, well above current market pricing.

One of the main reasons often given for this premium is the alleged value of synergy. That is, the innate benefits to be derived from having the merger. 

However, studies show that synergy frequently is not as beneficial as it’s made out to be. Problems always arise where unexpected, from merging staffs and personalities. And they may not be easily minimized.

It’s difficult to determine who really gets the benefit. I feel takeovers are usually done too fast, and far too often only for CEO ego satisfaction. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at Twitter.)

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