The area of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) is special in finance. Incredible amounts of money are employed in such transactions. Deals draw a lot of public attention and dispute. Oftentimes, stories look more like fairy tales rather than financial reality.
The key idea in any M&A transaction is to create value through a potentially synergetic activity. To this end, it is important to have a clear motive and implementation plan. Of special importance are the correct valuation, proper financing, and actual deal completion. But this is not the end – value mostly accrues from the post-merger integration.
The understanding of the motives of various stakeholders is instrumental in the analysis of the potential creation of value.
The learners will gain insight into the core value creating M&A strategies. They will be able to use the obtained knowledge and skills to successfully advance in their career at a financial institution, as well as in the area of financial management at non-financial businesses. Finally, the Course is very helpful in successful completion of the Specialization’s Final Project.
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Strategy and M&As. Theories of M&As
In Week 2 of the Course we discuss corporate strategy and its role in value creation. We revisit some well-known schools of strategic thinking and frameworks of strategy formulation and implementation. Our objective is to understand strategic motives behind M&A transactions.
Equipped with the overall understanding of strategy, we proceed with the discussion of major theories of M&As – the motives behind the planned transactions that have the value creation potential. In all theories we try to reveal the actual interests of the key stakeholders.
Finally, we study the actual deal mechanics and ways to overcome incumbent shareholder resistance (the free-rider problem).