| IV. Advice and Guidance for Successful M&A. In this section, websites are identified that provide checklists, and other guidance and advice, for the purpose of insuring that mergers and acquisitions are successful. An article written by Dominic Cingoranelli and Hubert Glover on ensuring success in mergers and acquisitions appears at this American Institute of Certified Public Accountant’s site, www.aicpa.org/pubs/tpcpa/june2004/ensuring.htm. The article focuses on smaller, private companies. Recklies Management Project GmbH maintains a website, www.themanager.org/Knowledgebase/Strategy/MandA.htm, which has information on most of the aspects of successful mergers and acquisitions. GTNEWS.com maintains this website, www.gtnews.com/article/5081.cfm, at which common pitfalls in M&A are identified and discussed. A framework for use in ensuring a successful merger or acquisition is also provided. The Credit Research Foundation maintains a site, www.crfonline.org/orc/cro/cro-17.html, at which advice and guidance is given on steps that accounts receivable (AR) specialists can take to enhance the chances of success of a merger. A checklist of information needs of the accounts receivable department on the AR processes of the acquired company and various useful AR-related milestones during the merger that should be met are given. CIO Magazine has an article at this site, www.cio.com/archive/081502/mergers.html, which has recommendations for successful integration of the information technology systems of merging companies. Whether mergers result in value gain or loss by the surviving company is of high interest. Value gained or loss in completed mergers has been the subject of many studies. The Wharton Business School’s Financial Institutions Center has evaluated how value is created or destroyed in mergers that have taken place in the banking and insurance industries. Information from this evaluation is available at this site, http://fic.wharton.upenn.edu/fic/m&a.html. The National Bureau of Economic Research has studied whether big companies gain or lose value in mergers and acquisitions and how this compares with value gain or loss in small companies. A summary of the study’s results is provided at this site, www.nber.org/digest/aug03/w9523.html. Access to the full study requires a small fee. This link, www.expectationsinvesting.com/tutorial10.shtml, takes you to a site created by Al Rappaport and Michael Mauboussin, which reviews the application of several computational analytical tools in analyzing the expected benefits of a merger or acquisition. A downloadable spreadsheet is available to help perform the computations. This link, www.business.com/directory/financial_services/investment_banking_and_brokerage/mergers_and_acquisitions_manda, takes you to a site, provided by Business.com, which has many links to sites that have information related to mergers and acquisitions. Most of the links are to companies that provide advice and guidance to organizations carrying out M&A. V. M&A Accounting Standards. In this section, websites are identified that will give you some of the accepted accounting procedures for company mergers and acquisitions, as well as a discussion of those procedures. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)’s standard FAS 141, Business Combinations, is available at this FASB site, http://www.fasb.org/st/index.shtml#fas154. This is the principle US accounting standard that covers accounting for mergers and acquisitions. Information is also provided on standards that preceded, effected by, and are related to FAS 141. Another FASB pronouncement, FAS 147, Acquisitions of Certain Financial Institutions, concerns business acquisitions in the financial industry. From this FASB site, www.fasb.org/news/nr100102.shtml, you can read about FAS 147 background activity. You can also download a copy of FAS 147 by clicking at the FASB site, in the column on the left, “FASB Pronouncements”, and then going to FAS 147. The Federal Reserve Board maintains a site, www.phil.frb.org/src/srcinsights/srcinsights/q4si5.html, which discusses FAS 147. You can search for SEC guidance on mergers and come up with links given at this site, http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/txt-srch-sec?text=merger+guidance§ion=Entire+Website&sort=rank. SEC accounting guidance for M&A could also be searched for. A summary of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)’s statement International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 3, on accounting for business combinations can be downloaded at the IASB site, www.iasb.org/Home.htm. Click "Summaries of International Financial Reporting Standards", in the left column. Detailed information on the international standards that preceded, are effected by, and are related to IFRS 3 can be found at this Deloitte site, www.iasplus.com/agenda/buscomb.htm. VI. Websites With Articles On Various Aspects of M&A. Websites identified in this section have articles that deal with various mergers and acquisition topics, including those identified in the sections above. Websites identified in this section are just a representation of what is available on the Internet. An overview of the various aspects of mergers and acquisitions, including information on some of the categories given above, such as government policy and accounting, can be found at this Wikipedia site, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mergers_and_acquisitions. Studies available on the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) of St. Louis’s website on mergers and acquisitions can be found at this St. Louis FRB site, http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/search. Searching on all years, all authors, and all categories using the search terms “mergers acquisitions” returned 5 studies. Professor Bruner, of the University of Virginia, maintains this site, http://faculty.darden.virginia.edu/brunerb/publications.htm, at which are peer and non-peer reviewed articles on various M&A topics. Topics include: gains to firms from mergers; merger returns; merger motives; merger negotiations; and European mergers and acquisitions. The Association for Corporate Growth maintains a website, www.acg.org, which has M&A articles available. Click “Resources – Knowledge Exchange” at the homepage, and then, “Previous Topics” or "Topic Categories”. Articles are available on many aspects of corporate growth, including merging and acquiring. The Journal of Applied M&A Theory’s site, www.mergerdigest.com, has several M&A-related articles. Click “Acquisition Marketplace Review Archives” for even more articles. Topics include: avoiding overpayment; M&A phases; seller motivations; and the effects of FAS 141 on M&A. Zeig White maintains this site, www.zweigwhite.com/perspectives/index.asp, at which are links to articles in several strategic areas, including mergers & acquisitions, along the left column. Many of the M&A articles deal with advice and guidance related to M&A. This site, http://home.uchicago.edu/~rposner/meshki1.htm, maintained by Hamed Meshhi at the University of Chicago, provides overview information on what a conglomerate merger is, the anti-competitive concerns of such a merger, and reasons for considering a conglomerate merger. The CFA (Certified Financial Advisor) Institute allows access to many articles on financial topics, including M&A, at this site, www.cfapubs.org/search/advanced. About 23 M&A-related articles are available at the CFA site on such topics as: firm size and gains from acquisitions and foreign acquisitions. please click here to go to the next and final page |
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