Financial Analysis of Mergers and Acquisitions - Understanding Financial Statements and Accounting Rules with Case Studies

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, whilethe 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.

List of contents

Part A - Accounting and Financial Reporting.- Chapter 1: Introduction to Accounting for Inter-Corporate Investments.- Chapter 2: Main Issues in Purchase Accounting.- Chapter 3: More Issues in Purchase Accounting.- Chapter 4: Spin-Offs and Equity Carve-Outs.- Chapter 5: Special Purpose Entities.- Chapter 6: Tax issues in Business Combinations.- Chapter 7: Leveraged Buyouts & Recapitalizations.- Chapter 8: Financial Analysis of Business Combinations (Ratios).- Chapter 9: Financial Analysis of Business Combinations (Advanced issues).- Part B - Case Studies.- Chapter 10: Kraft's Acquisition of Cadbury (Part I) - Purchase Accounting.- Chapter 11: The Bank of Hope: The Merger of Wilshire Bank and BBCN Bancorp.- Chapter 12: AT&T - Equity Method Investments.- Chapter 13: Nokia Siemens Networks - Purchase Accounting, Equity Method and Proportionate Consolidation.- Chapter 14: Ensign's Spin-off of CareTrust REIT.- Chapter 15: Altria and Kraft - Carve-out and Spin-off.- Chapter 16: The Sale ofCoca Tea - The Impact of Taxes.- Chapter 17: Surgery Partners - Pushdown Accounting.

About the author

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.

Product details

• Authors: Eli Amir, Marco Ghitti
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 17.02.2022
• EAN: 9783030617714
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3061771-4
• No. of pages: 298
• Dimensions: 155 mm x 17 mm x 235 mm
• Illustrations: XXI, 298 p. 26 illus., 25 illus. in color.
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Business > Business administration