Understanding Mergers and Acquisitions in the 21st Century: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Exploring mergers and acquisitions (MAs) in the 21st century, the authors systematically introduce, characterize and evaluate these mergers, discussing the methodologies that can be employed to measure them, and considering a number of factors relevant to their performance. They analyze the economic, managerial, legal, and psychological factors. Given that up to US＄10 billion a day is spent on mergers and acquisitions, and that approximately 70% of these fail, while the practice spreads internationally, this study into their performance and the impacting factors of M&As is much overdue.