A real case study performed by consulting firm KPMG International on 700 most expensive international mergers and acquisitions between 1996 and 1998 reflected that only 17% of the deals actually added value to the combined company. While 30% of the mergers and acquisitions had no impact on the new entity, the remaining 53% actually destroyed shareholder value. Similar results were found by Harvard Business School, in a survey conducted during 1995-1996. The following charts reveal studies done by CGE&Y and Merrill Lynch, which convey very low success rate of mergers and acquisitions. The studies also showed that larger deals tended to under perform smaller ones in terms of share price after the announcement of mergers and acquisitions.
