Do Mergers Create Value?

This paper is about two companies that went through same type of change (merger and acquisition) with different outcomes. Merger is combination of two or more companies in which the assets and liabilities of the selling firms are absorbed by the buying firm. Although the buying firm may be a considerably different organization after the merger, it retains its original identity while Acquisition is the purchase of an asset or an entire company (Sherman, A. J., & Hart, M. A. (2005). Chapter 1: The Basics of Mergers and Acquisitions. In, Mergers & Acquisitions from A to Z. American Management Association International.).

According to the researchers the increased value results from an opportunity to utilize a specialized resources which arises solely as a result of the merger (Jensens & Ruback, 1983; Bradle, Desai and Kim , 1983). For creating operational and financial synergies managers believe that two enterprises will be worth more if merged than if operates as two separate entities. Thus, the two companies, A and B:

Within the framework of an oligopolistic market, mergers could also result from what can be described as a behavior of “oligopolistic reaction”. (Knickerbocker, 1973) defines oligopolistic reaction as “a corporate behavior by which rival firms in an industry composed of a few large firms counter one another’s moves by making similar moves themselves (Knickerbocker, 1973). Thus, if two firms in an oligopolistic industry merge, others might react by merging in turn (Cantwell, 1992), independently of whether shareholders will gain or lose as a result.

With reference to your own research and the item above, do you think that takeovers and mergers inevitably improve the performance of the businesses involved?

Merging with another organization has downfalls of destroying wealth from the merger. Considering the buying price is important when merging, spending too much on the merger will impound the value after the merger. Some mergers do not create wealth so capital is lost through the merger. There is no guarantee of financial gain and every formula considered with focus, just as with an acquisition. The final decision dictated by the variables. One company merging with another company takes the debt and losses of those companies in the new formed company.

Mergers and acquisitions have become a growing trend for companies to inorganically grow a business within its particular industry. There are many goals that companies may be looking to achieve by doing this, but the main reason is to guarantee long-term and profitable growth for their business. Companies have to keep up with a rapidly increasing global market and increased competition. With the struggle for competitive advantage becoming stronger and stronger, it is almost essential to achieve these mergers. Through research I will attempt to dissect the best practices for achieving merger success.

A merger is a partial or total combination of two separate business firms and forming of a new one. There are predominantly two kinds of mergers: partial and complete. Partial merger usually involves the combination of joint ventures and inter-corporate stock purchases. Complete mergers are results in blending of identities and the creation of a single succeeding firm. (Hicks, 2012, p 491). Mergers in the healthcare sector, particularly horizontal hospital mergers wherein two or more hospitals merge into a single corporation, are increasing both in frequency and importance. (Gaughan, 2002). This paper is an attempt to study the impact of the merger of two competing healthcare organization and will also attempt to propose appropriate

In addition, like any other merger between two firms, companies benefit from significant cost synergy during the implementation of an acquisition and/or merger with other company. For example, when two companies combine their strengths to complement each other, they restructure their operations and as a result several offices and sites are closed down which leads to the laying off of employees, consolidating services and software applications. All these changes, result in synergy savings for the new company.

Merger motives that are questionable on economic grounds are diversification, purchase of assets below replacement cost, and control. Managers often state that diversification helps to stabilize a firm's earnings and reduces total risk, hence benefits shareholders. Stabilization of earnings is certainly beneficial to a firm's employees, suppliers, customers, and managers. However, if a stock investor is concerned about earnings variability, he or she can diversify more easily than the firm can. Why should Firm A and Firm B merge to stabilize earnings when stockholders can merely purchase both stocks and accomplish the same thing? Further, we know that well-diversified shareholders are more concerned with a stock's market risk than with its total risk, and higher earnings instability does not necessarily translate into higher market risk.

The goals of mergers range from reducing the number of competitors, to access of new products (Belcourt et al., p 330). Statistics show that 80% of new product developments fail (Howells, 2011), partly due to challenges and conflicts with human resources functions. Mergers and acquisitions are the fastest way to enter new markets. “It is estimated that 1/3 of all mergers fail due to faulty integration of diverse operations and cultures,” (Chhinzer, 2013). Therefore, the success of a merger or acquisition lies in the ability to guide, motivate, retain, and effectively use

Haspeslagh and Jemison (1987), argue that what determines the success of a acquisition is not the actual purchase itself, but the development of the acquisition strategy the supports. Unfortunately, many executives face the acquisitions as an end, not a means to achieve that end. According to this author, the acquisition is only one strategy business growth. There are others as internal growth, joint venture, partnership, franchise and strategic alliance. All should be evaluated by the company before implementing a business development strategy. A proper analysis of the acquisition goes beyond the study's own candidate company. It must include a contribution from the analysis of potential acquisition for the strategic development, as well as

Mergers and acquisition plays an important role in survival/vitalization of a corporation in today’s market. It continues to be a breakthrough strategy for improving innovation of a company’s product or services, market share, share price etc.

find little evidence of wealth creation, with shareholders of the target firms gaining at the expense of the bidder firms. A merger is said to create value, if the combined value of the bidder or target firm increases on the announcement of the merger (Houston et al., 2001) (Ghosh & Dutta, 2015) (Campa, 2004). Moreover, the synergistic gains hypothesis of corporate acquisitions underlined by Isa & Yap (2004) states that, a combination of two firms will result in a combined gain that is, more than the sum of the value of the individual firm. These gains may be attributed to the increasing efficiencies and synergies of the companies involved.

Many organizations will either experience a merger or acquisition to try to absorb the costs during unstable market times. Mergers and acquisitions to employee’s usual mean staff reductions and major changes, especially for an acquisition which, is when another company purchases a company and becomes a new company. (McClure, 2016)

A merger can reveal numerous opportunities for a smaller company seeking to increase sales without depleting resources or cash flow. If for example, Berry’s has established a strong customer loyalty and presence in a particular locale, but has not been successful in expanding to others, a merger with a competitor could easily lead to that opportunity. This “broadening of horizons” is commonly known in the business world as a horizontal merger. A