FROM
THE INSTITUTE FOR COLLABORATIVE ALLIANCES...
HOW MERGERS GO WRONG
The Economics,
July 22nd, 2000
A stream of studies has shown
that corporate mergers have even higher failure rates than the
liaisons of Hollywood stars. One report by KPMG, a consultancy,
concluded that over half of them had destroyed shareholder value,
and a further third had made no discernible difference. Yet
over the past two years, companies around the globe have jumped
into bed with each other on an unprecedented scale. In 1999
the worldwide value of mergers and acquisitions rose by over
a third to more than $3.4 trillion. In Europe, the hottest merger
zone of all, the value of deals more than doubled, to $1.2 trillion.
