Introduction

Chapter 1 sketches features of the M&A process that have motivated the book: the vast scale of M&A activity; the disappointing financial performance of many acquirers; the conflicts of interest between bidders’ executives and their shareholders; the upheavals in accounting standards for M&A; the mis-use of accounting to flatter the performance of merging firms; and the challenges encountered by practitioners and academics when using accounts to appraise and monitor merging businesses.