| page 3 and fianl page previous page VII. An Actual Merger As a Search Target for Internet Information. In this section, a summary of information that was found on an actual merger, the merger between Wachovia Bank and First Union Bank, is presented. A substantial amount of information was found on this Wachovia/First Union merger at websites that are linked to through the Management Accounting Information Center (MAIC)’s front page. General information on bank mergers was also found and some of this is presented below. Some of the websites linked to from the MAIC front-page topic “Mergers and acquisitions” provide information on the Wachovia/First Union merger. At the Justice Department Antitrust Division’s website, www.usdoj.gov/atr, information was found on this Division’s approval of the Wachovia /First Union merger and conditions that were attached to the approval, e.g. that several branch offices of both banks had to be sold. Another MAIC front-page topic that can lead to much information on mergers is “Journal, magazine, and news articles on accounting and other business topics”. For example, at this Better Manaagemetn.com business magazine website page, http://www.bettermanagement.com/library/library.aspx?libraryid=10510&pagenumber=2 an article discusses the merits and pitfalls of large banks resulting from mergers. Magazine articles dealing with the Wachovia/First Union merger can be identified by doing a search at the MagPortal site, http://www.magportal.com/cgi/search.cgi?b=0&q=wachovia+first+union+merger&x=25&y=13, and at the FindArticles site, www.findarticles.com/p/search?tb=art&qt=wachovia+first+union+merger&ft=any&qn=&fn=any&qe=&fe=any&qa=&oi=all&sm=1&sd=1&sy= 1950&em=8&en=18&ey=2006&le=gt&lp=0&pc=15&so=&free=0. Many scholarly articles have been written on bank mergers, sometimes with information in them related to the Wachovia/First Union merger, and many of these articles can be linked to at this Google Search site, http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=wachovia+first+union+merger&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Search. Another MAIC front-page topic leading to websites with Wachovia/First Union merger information is “Encyclopedia sources of information for management accountants”. Clicking on this front-page topic and then on “Search sites” leads you to two business search engines, Find.com and Business.com. Using the same search terms at Business.com also gives you links to Wachovia /First Union merger information. Although a lot of these links take you to duplicative news stories about the merger, some of the links lead to substantive, in-depth information of interest to accountants. At the MAIC front-page topic “Economic principles, data, and statistics” statistical data related to the Wachovia/First Union merger, and bank mergers in general, can be found. For example, searching the Federal Reserve Board information the Board makes available at it site, www.frbsf.org/publications/fedinprint/index.html, using the terms “Wachovia and “First Union” and merger and statistics” and searching only the Board’s staff studies database, yields 23 links to a lot of statistical data on bank mergers, including the Wachovia/First Union merger. VIII. Conclusion. This article has identified websites that provide information that might be useful to the management accountant and others in tasks related to merger and acquisition planning, accounting, and management. All of the websites can be linked to, not only from this article, but also from the topic “Mergers and acquisitions”, or one of the other 27 front-page topics on the Management Accounting Information Center (MAIC)’s front page, along the right side. In addition to the “mergers and acquisitions” front-page link, other MAIC front-page topics (on the right) can lead to M&A-related information. For example, statistical data on mergers can be found at some of the websites that are linked to at “Economics principles, data, and statistics”. Articles on mergers and acquisitions are available at some of the sites linked to at “Journal, magazines, and news articles on accounting and other business topics”. Additional information on accounting standards and principles is available at sites linked to at “Standards, principles, and concepts used in accounting and financial reporting”. Merger and acquisition activity related to specific companies is available at “Company financial results, SEC reporting, and other company data” and merger and acquisition trends and data for various industry sectors is available at “Industry sector trends, data, and statistics”. And, tax treatment considerations related to mergers are available at the IRS, and other tax-related sites, linked to from “Taxation – federal, state, and international income, sales, and other taxes”. And finally, an actual merger, the merger between Wachovia Bank and First Union Bank, which took place in the early 2000s, was used as a research target for Internet information. Using links available from the front page of the MAIC, substantial information about this particular bank merger, and bank mergers in general, was found. please click here to return to the Management Accounting Information Center (MAIC)'s home page please click here if you would like to send a comment on this article or suggest another topic for an article |