Financial Analysis of Mergers and Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) reshape the corporate landscape helping companies expand market share and gain a strategic advantage. The ability to understand and analyze these transactions is a crucial skill. The first step in acquiring that skill is being able to gather and analyse information on M&As from public sources, such as financial statements. This textbook helps its readers better analyze M&A transactions using information provided in financial statements. Covering accounting and reporting of consolidations, goodwill, non-controlling interests, step acquisitions, spin-offs, equity carve-outs, joint ventures, leveraged buyouts, disposal of subsidiaries, special purpose entities, and taxes, it focuses on the link between underlying economic events and the information in financial statements and how this link affects the assessment of corporate performance. The first part of the book provides description of the accounting rules governing M&A transactions, while the second part includes cases of M&A transactions. Each case focuses on a different element of an M&A transaction, and it is followed by a detailed solution with a complete analysis. Unlike other books in this field, this textbook focuses exclusively on accounting and financial analysis for graduate and upper undergraduate level courses in financial analysis, corporate finance, and financial accounting.

Eli Amir is a Professor of Accounting at Tel Aviv University's Coller School of Management, Israel, and a visiting professor at London Business School, UK. From 2000 to 2003 Amir served as the Chairman of the Israel Accounting Standards Board. From 1991 to 2000, he was an Associate Professor of Accounting at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business, USA. Amir received his BA in Accounting and Economics from Tel Aviv University (1986) and his PhD in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley, USA (1991). Amir teaches courses in corporate financial reporting, financial statement analysis, financial analysis of mergers and acquisitions, and empirical research in accounting. His research focuses on the link between security prices and accounting information and he has published many articles in leading academic journals.

Marco Ghitti is Assistant Professor of Accounting and Finance at SKEMA Business School- Université Côte d'Azur (Paris Campus). He received a MSc in Law and Business Administration from Bocconi (2006), a Masters in Finance from London Business School (2010) and a Ph.D. in Finance from Edhec Business School (2016). He has moved between academia and the advisory world. When he graduated  from Bocconi University, Italy, Marco joined an independent advisory boutique involved in M&A, business/assets valuations, and consulting on IFRS. In 2008, Marco became partner and head of the Corporate Finance advisory team of Studio Ghitti & Associati (SGA), an independent advisory boutique involved in corporate finance, accounting, tax and legal advisory. In 2011, Marco joined the Bocconi University Accounting Department, in Milan, as teaching fellow. From 2015 to 2018, he also lectured for Edhec Business School Finance Department in Nice. His research interests are law and economics, corporate governance, and bankruptcy.