Introduction to mergers and acquisitions

This post will give you a brief introduction to the key concepts required to take our workshops about finding historical deals.

Specialist Library Support

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Specialist Library Support

3 min readOct 16, 2019

What are Mergers & Acquisitions?

Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) are a business activity where either two companies merge to become one entity or one larger company takes over the control of another small company.

Diagram showing the difference in mergers and acquisitions.

Through mergers and acquisitions deals, companies could quickly enter into new product lines or new markets according to their long-term corporate strategy. There are many kinds of transaction, such as a merger, an acquisition, an initial public offering (IPO) or a bankruptcy.

A merger (usually referred to as “friendly”) is where two companies become one, in equal parts.
An acquisition (usually referred to as a “hostile” takeover), is where one company buys another to become a part of it.
An initial public offering is when a company’s shares are first available for the public to purchase. It is said to “float” and appear on a stock index, and can be considered “quoted” or “public” after this day. Until then, a company is private or unlisted. A company may become private again or delisted at a later date, or become taken over (acquired) or merge with another.

Sometimes a merger or acquisition is announced but never completed; these failures are still useful for researchers.

What types of data are available?

When searching an M&A database, you have access to details about each deal (transaction):

‘Date Announced’: when was the deal first publicised?
‘Deal Status’: is the deal currently tentative (rumoured), pending, completed, or was it withdrawn?
‘Date Effective’: when did the deal take effect, if it was completed?
‘Deal Value’: how much the transaction cost, if known to the public.
‘Synopsis’: a summary description and the attitude (hostile or friendly).
‘Source of Funds’: was the purchase made with cash, stocks or both?
‘Number of Bidders’: the number of entities (including the ‘acquiror’ — also more commonly spelt as Acquirer) bidding for a target.
‘Deal Advisors’: league tables.

There are details about each of the two companies involved:

‘Acquiror’: the leading company who initiates the deal, including an identifier code, its name, the country they are based in and which sector of industry they operate. (Also more commonly spelt as Acquirer)
‘Target’: the purchased company in the deal, including the country and industry.

This also includes financial details of each company on key dates before the deal, such as share price one day and one month prior to the announcement date, and various ratios.

Sources of historical mergers and acquisitions

University of Manchester Library’s Database A-Z listing page.

The M&A database in Refinitiv Eikon’s Advanced Research app covers M&A deals globally, with a history back to the 1970s.
The same data is also available through SDC Platinum platform available on PCs in the Finance Zone.
Capital IQ and Bloomberg also have similar data on global M&A deals.
Factiva provides news stories on M&A events on a global basis.
PI Filings Expert provides company and industry reports, searchable in many ways.
The business management literature databases ProQuest and Business Source Premier cover a great deal of more in depth of case studies and academic analysis of M&A deals.

Further support

Library database of frequently asked questions
Online resources and workshops
Contact us at any time if you have a specific research question, or need specialist help with a particular database.