Customer Reviews

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Corporate Restructurings, 3rd Edition

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a graduate professor who teaches several course on M&A, I've chosen two other efforts from publisher John Wiley for this year's curriculum over Pat Gaughan's updated version of his old book. Jeffrey Hooke's "Practical Guide to Doing the Deal" covers most of the same material in a more interesting style and "Winning at Mergers & Acquisitions" shows my students how all of this applies to the real world. Mark Clemente & David Greenspan, authors of "Winning at M&A", helped my students to understand the business rationale behind deals and brought to light many of the reasons so many corporate combinations fail. In addition, the juicy chapters on strategy, due diligence and culture and a whole section on integration best practices -- I feel -- will prepare serious readers on the topic and students of business alike for the M&A challenges that actually exist in corporate America today. Case studies and testaments on what works and what doesn't from corporate VPs and CEOs involved in mergers and acquisitions make "Winning at M&A" the core content I've already added to next year's syllabus. As for John Wiley's reprinting of Gaughan's book, they probably should have asked Hooke and Gaughan to collaborate on an updated version rather than publish two versions of the same manuscript.

On the whole this is a good book for someone looking to get an overview of M and A. It is well written and reasonably well organized, with an interesting discussion of recent transactions and trends. However, the book continues to suffer from some of the problems in earlier editions. It omits subjects that one would expect to find in an effective M and A textbook. These include integration, alternative strategies to M and A such as JVs, a discussion of how acquisitions support business strategies, how target companies can be identified, target firm contact strategies, etc., how to conduct due diligence, how to build M and A financial models, negotiation strategies, sophisticated valuation methods, etc. There are a number of other books which do a much better job in addressing these areas rather than providing an overview of industry trends, etc. Examples of such books include Fred Weston's M&A (the brief edition) and Donald Depamphilis (?) book Mergers, Acquisitions, and other Restructuring. There are books on this subject that are gems, however, Gaughan's isn't' one of them.

Mergers, Acquisitions and Corporate Restructuring provides informative context and key formulae for both the practitioner and lay-person without ad nauseum details. Patrick Gaughan highlights corporate finance resolutions to business strategy and organization challenges in relevent business cases providing insight to successful transactions. Significantly more readable and concise than McKinsey Consulting's Valuations tome, yet covers similar material. It's not surprising that this book won the Book of the Year Award in its category from the Association of American Publishers. Congrats (and thank you) to Patrick Gaughan!

This is a very good book if:
1.You are a novice
2.You want to get a comprehensive overview of M&A and Corporate Restructurings
3.You are interested in history of M&A
4.You want a good insight in the valuation process.

I strongly recomend this book if you are new in the M&A world, although if you are interested in valuation tools and techniques (I mean more math and numbers...) you will have to go deeper with other books. Anyway enjoy it..

Kindle does not support page numbers. Therefore, you can not search or identify page numbers for assigned reading. Amazon are unapologetic about their ridiculous technology and lack of support.

I anxiously awaited the publication of this third edition. And, I was not at all dissapointed. This book provides the most current, comprehensive, and thought provoking information on corporate restructerings. The case studies and reseach are very practical and add immense value to the book. It is the only book that I am aware of that thoroughly addresses the corporate finance, legal, economic, and valuation considerations for all types of corporate restructerings (M&As, LBOs, joint ventures, etc.)

This book is an excellent pragmatic treatment of the topic of mergers. It surveys the relevant research and combines it with many practical examples to demonstrate its relevance. The abundant case studies serve to drive home each major point. The topics covered feature a broad international focus throughout the book. Given the fact that mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructurings are now an international phenomena, we need a book which covers the topic from such a focus rather than just focusing on a U.S.-oriented treatment.

The other major advantage of this book over other merger books is its chapters on valuation. Practitioners will find this invaluable. I would strongly recommend this book to all interested in the field.

Kerry Monahan

This book provided me with a solid foundation on M&A and restructuring activity. It is written in a very clear, concise manner. The case studies examined the most recent activity and made the book even more useful. In addition, the strategies and techniques that the book provides made the price well worth it.

I throughly enjoyed reading Patrick Gaughan's book on Mergers, Acquisitions and Corportate Restrucurings. I am the president of a printing firm and was thinking along the lines of merging my company with another interested party down the road. I purchased Gaughan's book and it helped me understand how mergers worked in an easy to understand format. I have become more educated in this field by reading his book which would help me make better decisions in the future of my business. I highly recommend this to any professor teahing this course or for any CEO or COO who is also thinking along the lines of consolidation.

Kerry Monahan President Concept Printing,Inc. Bergenfield, NJ

This book is a valuable guide to the real world issues of M&A's and Corporate Restructuring. Instead of dwelling too much on financial theory it provides informative descriptions of the options available to CEO's, CFO's, corporate boards and shareholders, as well as the ethical and tactical issues they will face. Language and structure both are very accessible, making this book equally useful as a study text or reference book.

I can recommend this book to both finance majors and laypeople.