Welcome to M&Apedia
the free encyclopedia of mergers and acquisitions that anyone can learn from — currently 142 reference articles covering deal types, valuation, due diligence, deal structures, financing, takeover defenses, accounting and regulation.
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Mergers and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are transactions in which the ownership of companies, business units, or their assets is transferred or consolidated. As a discipline, M&A spans corporate strategy, finance, accounting and law; as a process, a typical private-company deal runs six to twelve months across six distinct stages, with the buyer, the seller, and a stack of advisors playing well-defined roles at each step.
Did you know…
- …that most empirical studies find a majority of mergers fail to create value for the acquirer's shareholders, often because expected synergies are overestimated?
- …that a poison pill lets a target's board dilute a hostile bidder without a shareholder vote?
- …that in an accretion/dilution analysis, a deal can be "accretive" to earnings per share yet still destroy value?
- …that the letter of intent is usually non-binding on price but binding on exclusivity and confidentiality?
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Valuation
- Enterprise value
- Business valuation
- Discounted cash flow
- Comparable company analysis
- Precedent transaction analysis
- Accretion/dilution analysis
- EBITDA
- EBITDA multiple
- Seller's discretionary earnings
- Revenue multiple
- Sum-of-the-parts valuation
- Asset-based valuation
- Control premium
- Minority discount
- Discount for lack of marketability
- Weighted average cost of capital
- Terminal value
- Normalization adjustments
- Quality of earnings
Deal process
- Due diligence
- Letter of intent
- Definitive purchase agreement
- Investment banking in M&A
- Tender offer
- Sell-side M&A process
- Buy-side M&A process
- Teaser
- Confidential Information Memorandum
- Non-disclosure agreement
- Data room
- Indication of interest
- Management presentation
- Exclusivity
- M&A broker vs investment banker
- No-shop clause
- Go-shop clause
- Fairness opinion
- Deal sourcing
- Closing checklist
- Quality of earnings report