MSc Professional Accounting - Essay

Running head: MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
MSc Professional Accounting
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
Table of Contents
Section 1..............................................................................................................................2
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Mergers and Acquisition Overview.....................................................................................3
Factors affecting merger and acquisition advisory choice..................................................6
Critical Success Factors for the target company..................................................................8
Project Success Criteria.......................................................................................................9
Critical success factors......................................................................................................12
Critical success factors for projects...................................................................................12
Spotting Winning Mergers’ Critical Characteristics.........................................................13
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................14
References for Section 1....................................................................................................16
Section 2............................................................................................................................19
Reflective Essay.................................................................................................................19
References for Section 2....................................................................................................23

2MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
Section 1
Introduction
As discussed by El-Khatib, Fogel and Jandik (2015), the corporate mergers and
acquisitions have received a lot of publicity in the academic as well as corporate world. In 2005,
Thompson Financial reports were seen to announce a worldwide deal volume of US $ 2.7 trillion
which is an increase of more than 38% from $ 2 trillion in 2004. In compared to this, the value of
the deal increased by 33.3% to USD 1.1 trillion an announced in 2005. Additionally, the Europe
deal volume also went up by 37% to US $ 1.2 trillion and additionally the Asian deal volume
also experienced a surge of 64% to USD to 280 million. Several corporations around the world
considered M&A strategies for realizing the cost synergies as for the increased competition,
product mix, pricing pressures and concentration of the asset.
In the recent times, as the number of M&A transactions keeps on increasing, the advisory
entities of M&A as those opposed to the global investment banking have been benefited from
this trend. The global investment banking and brokerage industry is depicted to generate total
revenue of USD 57.5 billion in 2005 in which USD 19 billion was as a result of M&A activities.
Additionally, it is also not common for the company’s especially small and medium companies
with insufficient expertise to manage thine house M&A activities. It is more common for the
large corporations for establishing the in-house financial and corporate deployment departments
for employing the advisory services and utilizing the valuable content network and efficient use
of client personal close to monitor the transactions (Products 2015).
The main purpose of the study inside discussing the fact that shareholders in “target
company gain more in the short-term and medium-term compared to the shareholders in the

3MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
acquiring company”. This discussion is further supported with various types of assessments
which are associated to the process of conducting is business combination activities.
Additionally, the project’s success criteria are also measured from the merger and acquisition of
advisory firms (Belleflamme, Lambert and Schwienbacher 2014).
Mergers and Acquisition Overview
The topic of merger and activity is gaining increasing importance in the last two decades
with response to more and more merger and activities being increasingly complex in terms of
transactions involved. In a broad sense, M&A activity implies the total number of different
transactions which ranges from a number of purchase and sales activity is concentrated between
the joint ventures, alliances and undertakings for ensuring independence of business. There are
several explanations to this theory which leads to confusion and misunderstanding due to the
strategic alliances. Merger is identified as a combination between two entities for creating a
separate entity. Acquisition is the act of purchasing assets or shares of another company for
achieving managerial influence which may not be or maybe in the mutual agreement (Kansal and
Chandani 2014). The model of M&A has been depicted below as follows

4MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
Figure: Model of Merger and Acquisition
(Source: Yang, Wei and Chiang, 2014)
In general, mergers are commonly denoted as merger by absorption or merger by
establishment. In situation of absorption, the company buys all the stocks from a single or
multiple companies and in case of apps of companies the establishment of merger refers to
merging of two new entities into a single new entity. The merger by absorption can be viewed as
de facto acquisition beside the term consolidation can be also implied for merger by
establishment (Mas-Verdú, Ribeiro-Soriano and Roig-Tierno 2015).

5MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
During the acquisition of companies, the buying company may pursue a significant share
of the stocks of a target company. Similarly, there are important forms of acquisition, namely
share acquisition and asset acquisitions. In a share acquisition, the company is depicted to
purchase certain percentage of stocks of the target company for influencing the management.
Whereas, during asset acquisition the company buys all parts of the target company’s assets and
the target sustains as a legal entity. Based on the significance of shares of stocks, the company
acquisitions are further categorized into three types. This includes: “complete take over (100%
of target’s issued shares)”, “majority (50-99%)”, and “minority (less than 50%)” (Yilmaz and
Tanyeri 2016). In addition to this, the merger and acquisition are depicted as to separate from the
actions which have several consequences based on the legal obligations, tax liabilities and
procedure of acquisition. Despite of this, in general the final outcome of M&A transactions
considered in which two or more companies are seen to combine their business affords and we
do not make an effort to separate this merger transaction from acquisition ones. In such a
situation, M&A is treated as a corporate finance service which provides M&A advice to the
firms (Ferris, Houston and Javakhadze 2016).
In context of classification of mergers and acquisitions, the main perspective of value
chain for M&A is categorized as horizontal, vertical or conglomerate. In case of horizontal
M&A, the target companies and the acquiring companies are depicted as competing in the same
industry. In addition to this, in horizontal business combination process the restructuring in
business occurs as a result of technological changes and liberalization. This particular trade is
evident in industries related to petroleum, the mobile and pharmaceuticals (Yılmaz and Tanyeri
2016). A similar example of this can be seen with the merger of two US giants namely Glaxo
and SmithKline Beecham with a total value of USD 76 billion. Based on the statement of the
former CEO of SmithKline Beecham the main aim of combination of two companies was
depicted with research and development synergies to drive the revenues and explore enormous

6MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
opportunities for revenue creation. The vertical merger and acquisition are common with firms in
buyer and seller relationship and client supplier relationship. Many companies often seek to
reduce uncertainties of the transaction costs by considering the downstream and upstream
“linkages in the value chain” in order to benefit from economies of scope. Finally, several
companies that tend to diversify the risk and attain economies of scope by engaging in
conglomerate merger and acquisition transaction in which the business are operating as unrelated
entities. For instance, the vertical merger and acquisition is clear with the business combination
of General foods and Philip Morris in a deal of USD 5.6 billion (Porter and Heppelmann 2015).
The last category of merger and acquisition needs to be depicted with friendly and hostile
mergers. In situations when the target company agrees to the transaction then it is known as
friendly merger. On the other hand, if the board refuses an offer in several situations, the
acquiring company offers wishes against the target company. Finally, M&A transaction can also
take place either with cross-border or domestic transaction. In case of cross-border M&A
activity, the two forms located in different economies are depicted to operate in a single
economy but belong to two different countries.
Factors affecting merger and acquisition advisory choice
Comprehensive discussion on the various benefits in acquiring the target firm is often
seen with enjoying the result of employing M&A advisory firm. It needs to be further understood
that there are two prominent advantages of the advisory M & A firms. Firstly, the intermediaries
of M&A are able to deliver a certain level of anonymity to the target and acquiring forms which
is of significant importance due to the initial discussions prior to the start of merger and
acquisition negotiations. Secondly, the intermediaries may have certain specialized knowledge
on the particular characteristics of a form which includes the information on the upmarket
potential and financial potential with that wearers may not have. Additionally, the employment

7MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
of M&A intermediaries has the scope of exploiting the various benefits as a result of
comparative advantages (Mnih et al. 2015). Some of the lesser-known facts of engaging in
business combination activities are any moderated as follows:
Efficiency Gains Based On Information Cost
In situations when the form is to not hire any intermediaries for merger and acquisition,
they are particularly seen to see for potential partners by themselves. The information gathering
process takes place with those partners will cause the cost of the firms. In case, there is any
potential of failing to materialize information, it is considered as a waste from society’s point of
view as the intermediaries would create an updated database for potential M&A partners and
utilize the same with various types of engagements. Due to this, the intermediaries of M&A are
often seen to provide the insurance for any scope of sampling error which may seek the firms to
adopt merger and acquisition activities without any advisory assistance. Therefore, the
intermediaries with merger and acquisition market have more efficiency than the ones which
does not have (Ouyang and Hilsenrath 2017).
Efficiency gains as per searching of potential partners
In various situations the forms incline to search for information about the potential
partners only when they are in need for M&A assistance. However, it is to be seen that the
advisory firms continue the searching process of M&A on a continuous basis thereby enabling
that writers for suggesting potential partners to their clients in several conditions thereby
reducing sampling errors.

8MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
When it comes to M&A of the advisory firms, two important empirical studies have a
significant role to play. A sample of acquisition collected from over a period of 1981-1992
shows the assessment of three hypotheses namely “transaction costs, asymmetric information,
and contracting hypotheses”. These empirical researches have shown that the advisory firm of
M&A in the banking industry have depicted several implications on investment bank -assisted
transaction which is more often taken over by hostile means and less likely to be all-cash
financed. In addition to this, when they acquirer is not seen as the first bidder then it is more
likely that the investment bank will take its part. In terms of the contracting hypotheses there are
several studies which showed that investment banks have it reducing tendency of the agency
costs in terms of acquiring the firms which certifies the value of acquisition. Additionally, the
acquiring forms are also more likely to use the investment bank while purchasing of publicly
traded companies (Dimopoulos and Sacchetto 2017).
Critical Success Factors for the target company
As stated by Kruglova and Zubkov (2017), some of the main critical success factors for
the merger and acquisition activities needs to be taken into consideration with the description of
project success standards for M&A projects from different viewpoints and advisory firms. The
second aim of this section identifies the critical factors for merger and acquisition projects.
Before stating the review of the literature it is important to note that terminologies namely
critical success factors and project success criteria have control in determining the review the
party “who gains” and “who loses” in the short, medium and longer terms and whether the gains,
if they exist, are found in all cases (Piper and Schneider 2015).
Critical accomplishment factors are identified as “the set of circumstances, facts, or
influences which contribute to the project outcomes”. Secondly, the success criteria of a project
is set out with the standards of principles through which success in the project can be brought.

9MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
The various types of critical factors can be also perceived as a result of impeding conditions
which effect the project result whereas the project success criteria are viewed as a result of
measurement agreed among the stakeholders for assessment of project outcomes. In addition to
this, there are several researchers who have observed the critical success factors in the recent
times to be categorized as dependent variables. In other words, the critical success factors can
significantly have a positive impact on the project outcomes which will be conducive for
assessment of measurement factors as specified in the project success criteria (Abbott et al.
2016). Moreover, the issues associated to project success criteria are stated as follows:
Project Success Criteria
in the past, several early researchers have identified the success criteria is such as “iron
triangle of time, budget and required quality”. However, in the recent corporate environment
these measures are unlikely to fetch the desired outcome. There have been several claims made
that if a project is measured with variables of the time, scope and cost, it suggests that project
management is only serving in a tactical way and not in a strategic way. Based on several types
of literature review it has been explained that the development of criteria leading the success of
the project is based on internal aspects since the external aspects are particularly complicated and
generally included in the handover phase (Bowers, Hall and Srinivasan 2017). Nevertheless, the
recent researchers have included several external aspects which are critical in including
stakeholder community benefits, organizational benefits and achievement of business goals. This
is viewed with in a modern merger acquisition transaction of “Qantas Holidays, Qantas
Business Travel” and the “Jetset Travelworld Retail Group”, merging with “Stella Travel
Services PTY. LTD” (Airline Business 2015).
Some of the other successful mergers and acquisition activities in the country has been
depicted with Hanesbrands Inc. acquisition of Pacific Brand Ltd. in a deal of $ 1.1 billion. “HBI

10MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
Australian Acquisition Co. Pty Ltd” was identified a fully subsidiary under Hanesbrands Inc.
Some of the main form of proceeding of the deal can be identified with the offering of an all cash
bid of $ 1.15 per share for 100% of the company. The price was further depicted to be segregated
into a purchase of $ 1.056 and a $ 0.0094 fully franked special dividend per share. The total
transaction has been depicted to be equated with an overall price of $ 1.1 billion.
The Genesee & Wyoming acquisition of Glencore Plc is identified as another important
M&A activity which is worth $1.14 billion. The Glencore involved an asset for the sale program
to reduce the pile of the overall debt. The M&A activity was conducive for the reducing the $ 50
billion debt. The program further led to several types of the issues which are seen to be
associated to the right to transport 40 million of the coal to the Port of Newcastle in each year. In
their complex deal RBC capital ran the Glencore’s auction and Glencore was able to obtain the
legal advice by the “Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Allens” who was responsible for their
legal work.
The M&A activity of Baring Private Equity and SAI Global Ltd took place in 2016 is
also considered to be significantly important. The $ 1billion was considered as an all cash offer
which was accepted in September for $ 4.75 per share and 34% of the premium was adjusted as
per the weight of the average price at the time of acquisition (The Typewriter 2016).
This merger can directly be viewed as a short-term and medium-term gains for Qantas
group as the main intention of entering into M&A activity was depicted with including
stakeholder community benefits, organizational benefits and fulfilment of business goals of
Qantas. Additionally, there are several other measurements to assess the outcomes of project
which includes different perspectives of viewing the project manager’s opinion and public
opinion in general. These explain why the same project is perceived as a success by a one group
and failure by other. For instance, one project might be identified as successful as per the client,

11MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
on the other hand the same project may not be finished within timeframe and be considered
unsuccessful in the aspect of project management (Obokata et al. 2014).
With particular relevance to M&A projects, the advisory Council of the firms often take
control of the Central advisory role on client’s behalf. In several situations, the project team
forms its own member of personal with varying nature of expertise is and the stakeholders either
in the target form or acquiring form. In other situations, the key stakeholders are considered as its
clients either in the target form or acquiring firm. In situations, then there is requirement for
several advisers, the M&A advisory firm especially the investment banks take his role is as a
coordinator.
On the other hand, there are several understandings from other excerpts states that forms
engage in different types of M&A activities which can bring successful fulfilment of the firm’s
motives. In case, the merger and acquisition deal is initiated the manager toward their own
individual benefits are allowed to maximize the same. In majority of the cases, the motives can
be realized once the deal is closed. In general, M&A advisory firm are normally seen to be
engaged in several stages towards the closure. In these cases, a major concern is seen with the
significant influence. This points to the concurrence of one finding from an empirical study
stated that the benefit of choosing high-quality investment banker using a sample of 114 U.S.-
based deals of M&A obtained out of the 600 completed deals reported by Mergers &
Acquisitions. The study showed that the investment bank acted as an intermediary and did not
create wealth which underlies the main motives of M&A advisor choice. The main findings of
the study further revealed that the absolute and relative wealth were not related to each other and
there was a possibility of negative correlation with the reputation of the advisor and bidder. This
has raised several questions about the doubts concerned with merger and acquisition projects.

12MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
Despite of the existence of possible conflicts of the merger and acquisition motives and
interests of advisory firms saw the other significant alignments can be depicted with contingent
contracts. The contingent contract motivates the various types of advisory firms such as
investment banks to satisfy the objectives of the client. In addition to this, the increasing
competition in the merger and acquisition consultancy forces have added to the share of client’s
value. In this situation, the banker must consider it to be worthwhile to proceed with the
acquisitions as gains will be realized in case actual deal took place. Moreover, the advisory firms
have been for the ribbon to state that identifying the combination of results brought a greater
synergy among the firms.
There have been several other discussions which points out to the win factors as a result
of merger and acquisition activities based on recent corporate environment. Based on this
understanding, it can be stated that a merger and acquisition project is successful then the
objectives of the client are fulfilled to that extent when the merger and acquisition advisory firm
is in control of influencing the outcomes of client’s objectives. Additionally, the advisory firms
generally aim that closing the deal and taking significant compensation benefits including
contingent fee payments. This is seen as a major success when it comes to short-term and long-
term success for the acquiring company. Therefore, it is discerned that the success may come
from highest possible fee amount that the merger and acquisition advisory firm can gain from the
deal.
Critical success factors
The critical success factors are defined as the limited scope of area which ensure
successful competitive performance for any company. The CSF are further discerned as the
informational requirements influencing management’s involvement in generating the desired
outcomes. The critical success factors can be further depicted as framework for the project

13MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
management which shows the factors responsible for successful outcomes. Despite of any
situation critical factors can fail due to uncontrollable factors. Nevertheless, these factors are
recognized as controllable and have a chance of successful project. These factors are also
responsible for establishing performance indicators which are conducive in assessing the project
management scope. The following review of the short-term and long-term benefits of merger and
act activities along with the CSF are listed in some of the next sections of this report (Obokata et
al. 2014).
Critical success factors for projects
The development of CSF was seen in the early 1970s to 1980s as many literatures took an
approach of responding to the indicators associated the success of project and consideration of
quality, cost and time influencing the stakeholder satisfaction. In the first attempt, the
development of collective CSF is depicted to be based on the implementation of empirical study
conducted in 1986. These studies are relied on profile model (PIP) which is responsible for
identifying the various aspects of factors which determine success of the project and also
provides access to the managers. Based on these several types of success factors 10 CSF which
affect the short-term and medium-term gains in a merger and acquisition activity have been
considered with factors such as schedule, communication, project mission, top management,
client consultation, monitoring, feedback and client acceptance.
Spotting Winning Mergers’ Critical Characteristics
It needs to be discerned that the goal of monitoring the salient characteristics for
improving the achievements of the business has a long history for its implementation in business
and finance. During the second decade of the 20th century, the efficiency experts have sought to
identify and measure the combination of actions which have resulted in optimal situations. There

14MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
are top leaders were being frequently asked for the critical differences which segregates
underperforming pack of directors with the performing ones. Even due to the fact that many
parties may claim merger and acquisition success accurately, there may be several instance of
conflicts which may distort the outcome especially in intermediaries such as investment banks
they are the advisers tend to view the Mergers with close transactions volume only. The true
relatedness refers to the concept of systematic objective assessment of individual transaction
success or failure of an independent basis. There are several identification and examination of
application of positive and negative attributes which shows that the leaders of Mergers and
acquisitions deals and arguably in the field related to marketing. In terms of marketing field,
there are continuous insight about features which offers several profitable deals to the customers.
This seemingly creates endless details for gathering the necessary factors for disposable income
and proclivity of spending price versus demand elasticity (Zhang et al. 2015).
Therefore, it needs to be seen that the six key merger success is depicted with strategic
vision and feet, structure of the deal, due diligence, premerger planning, planning of forced
merger and external factors. The strategic vision and fit concerns are related to focus on long-
term competitive advantage and designing for various synergies, geography, people, size or
services. The deal structure is associated with the type of financing option which is most
beneficial as for the price paid. The due diligence factor is associated with conducting formal
review of revenues, assets, liabilities and evaluation of cultural organizational fit based on other
financial elements. The premerger planning consists of the combination process is associated to
the decisions of communication factors. The post-modern division suffered the relevant with the
human resource, customer relationships, technical operations and careful blend of all the
important decisions taken during the merger and acquisition process. The external factors are
depicted with the long-term merger value which are distinguished with the short-term perception.

15MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
Therefore, based on the significant findings of the secondary studies it can be stated that
research has been able to contribute to valuable knowledge in the field of both merger and
acquisition and achievement of successful merger and acquisition projects. Based on the findings
it can be further stated that the individuals who gains and the individuals who loose are seen to
be existent in all the different cases selected for the assessment of study. In addition to this as
stated before the critical success factors are defined as the limited scope of area which ensure
successful competitive performance for any company. The CSF are further discerned as the
informational requirements influencing management’s involvement in generating the desired
outcomes. The critical success factors can be further depicted as framework for the project
management which shows the factors responsible for successful outcomes. Despite of any
situation critical factors can fail due to uncontrollable factors. Nevertheless, these factors are
recognized as controllable and have a chance of successful project.
Conclusion
The various discourse of the study is able to depict that in general, mergers are commonly
referred as merger by absorption or merger by establishment. In situation of absorption, the
company buys all the stocks from a single or multiple companies and in case of apps of
companies the establishment of merger refers to merging of two new entities into a single new
entity. Based on the significance of shares of stocks, the company acquisitions are further
categorized into three types. This includes: “complete take over (100% of target’s issued
shares)”, “majority (50-99%)”, and “minority (less than 50%)”. In addition to this, the merger
and acquisition are depicted as to separate from the actions which have several consequences
based on the legal obligations, tax liabilities and procedure of acquisition. The vertical merger
and acquisition are common with firms in buyer and seller relationship and client supplier
relationship. Many companies often seek to reduce uncertainties of the transaction costs by

16MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
considering the downstream and upstream linkages in the value chain in order to benefit from
economies of scope. Some of the main critical success factors for the merger and acquisition
activities needs to be taken into consideration with the success factors. The second aim of this
section identifies the critical factors for merger and acquisition projects. Before stating the
review of the literature, it is important to note that terminologies namely critical success factors
and project success criteria have control in determining the review the party “who gains” and
“who loses” in the short, medium and longer terms and whether the gains, if they exist, are found
in all cases.
As for the depictions of different types of literature review it has been explained that the
development of criteria leading the success of the project is based on internal aspects since the
external aspects are particularly complicated and generally included in the handover phase.
Nevertheless, the recent researchers have included several external aspects which are critical in
including stakeholder community benefits, organizational benefits and achievement of business
goals. This is viewed with in a modern merger acquisition transaction of “Qantas Holidays,
Qantas Business Travel” and the “Jetset Travelworld Retail Group”, merging with “Stella
Travel Services PTY. LTD.”
Total Words: 4347
References for Section 1
Abbott, B. P. et al. (2016) ‘Observation of gravitational waves from a binary black hole merger’,
Physical Review Letters, 116(6). doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102.
Airline Business (2015) ‘Profits To Crown New Monarch.’, Airline Business, 31(8), pp. 40–41.

17MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
Belleflamme, P., Lambert, T. and Schwienbacher, A. (2014) ‘Crowdfunding: Tapping the right
crowd’, Journal of Business Venturing, 29(5), pp. 585–609. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2013.07.003.
Bowers, M. R., Hall, J. R. and Srinivasan, M. M. (2017) ‘Organizational culture and leadership
style: The missing combination for selecting the right leader for effective crisis management’,
Business Horizons, 60(4), pp. 551–563. doi: 10.1016/j.bushor.2017.04.001.
Dimopoulos, T. and Sacchetto, S. (2017) ‘Merger activity in industry equilibrium’, Journal of
Financial Economics, 126(1), pp. 200–226. doi: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2017.06.014.
El-Khatib, R., Fogel, K. and Jandik, T. (2015) ‘CEO network centrality and merger
performance’, Journal of Financial Economics, 116(2), pp. 349–382. doi:
10.1016/j.jfineco.2015.01.001.
Ferris, S. P., Houston, R. and Javakhadze, D. (2016) ‘Friends in the right places: The effect of
political connections on corporate merger activity’, Journal of Corporate Finance, 41, pp. 81–
102. doi: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2016.08.011.
Kansal, S. and Chandani, A. (2014) ‘Effective Management of Change During Merger and
Acquisition’, Procedia Economics and Finance, 11, pp. 208–217. doi: 10.1016/S2212-
5671(14)00189-0.
Kruglova, O. A. and Zubkov, S. O. (2017) ‘METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF
ESTIMATING EFFICIENCY OF MERGER AND ACQUISITION PROCESSES OF
ENTERPRISES’, Financial and credit activity: problems of theory and practice, 2(23), pp. 167–
174. doi: 10.18371/FCAPTP.V2I23.121467.

18MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
Mas-Verdú, F., Ribeiro-Soriano, D. and Roig-Tierno, N. (2015) ‘Firm survival: The role of
incubators and business characteristics’, Journal of Business Research, 68(4), pp. 793–796. doi:
10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.11.030.
Mnih, V. et al. (2015) ‘Human-level control through deep reinforcement learning’, Nature,
518(7540), pp. 529–533. doi: 10.1038/nature14236.
Obokata, H. et al. (2014) ‘Stimulus-triggered fate conversion of somatic cells into pluripotency’,
Nature, 505(7485), pp. 641–647. doi: 10.1038/nature12968.
Ouyang, W. and Hilsenrath, P. E. (2017) ‘Merger & Acquisition and Capital Expenditure in
Health Care.’, Inquiry: A Journal Of Medical Care Organization, Provision And Financing, 54,
pp. 46958017692275–46958017692275. doi: 10.1177/0046958017692275.
Piper, L. and Schneider, M. (2015) ‘Merger or Acquisition: Is There a Difference?’, Nurse
Leader, 13(6), pp. 37–39. doi: 10.1016/j.mnl.2015.09.009.
Porter, M. E. and Heppelmann, J. E. (2015) ‘How smart, connected products are transforming
companies’, Harvard Business Review. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004.
Products, C. (2015) ‘Combination products.’, Combination Product. doi:
10.1136/pgmj.50.580.103.
The Typewriter. (2016). 2016 Top 10: Australian Mergers and Acquisitions » The Typewriter.
[online] Available at: http://typewriterintl.com/2016/12/27/2016-mergers-acquisitions/
[Accessed 6 Jun. 2018].
Yang, C. S., Wei, C. P. and Chiang, Y. H. (2014) ‘Exploiting technological indicators for
effective technology merger and acquisition (M&A) predictions’, Decision Sciences, 45(1), pp.
147–174. doi: 10.1111/deci.12062.

19MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
Yilmaz, I. S. and Tanyeri, B. (2016) ‘Global Merger and Acquisition (M&A) activity: 1992-
2011’, Finance Research Letters, 17, pp. 110–117. doi: 10.1016/j.frl.2016.02.005.
Yılmaz, I. S. and Tanyeri, B. (2016) ‘Global Merger and Acquisition (M&A) activity:
1992–2011’, Finance Research Letters, 0(June), pp. 1–9. doi: 10.1016/j.frl.2016.02.005.
Zhang, J. et al. (2015) ‘The effect of leadership style on talent retention during Merger and
Acquisition integration: evidence from China’, International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 26(7), pp. 1021–1050. doi: 10.1080/09585192.2014.908316.

20MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
Section 2
Reflective Essay
The two important teams discussed in the reflective exercise has been directly related to
the present issues of international merger and acquisition activities. The first discussion has been
included with my understanding of merger and acquisition cycles especially in consideration of
the most recent merger wave along with stating the timing as success factor for the deal which
indirectly influences the M&A activities. The second most important concept in my reflective
view has been stated with that assessment of how the merger success progressed in the global
merger acquisitions theme (Broten 2017).
The study has been conducive in understanding the recent trends of global merger and
acquisition activities with significant impact on countries such as US and Australia. The various
learning objectives of the study have provided me with the opportunity to know about the
various types of classification of Mergers and acquisitions. Based on the assessment of the report
I have been able to know about the process of merger and acquisition in a global environment. In
addition to this, I have been able to explore in topics such as what is the main rationale for the
forms in engaging in the merger and acquisition activities and also know about the development
of merger and acquisitions. Some of the other important aspects of the study have provided the
opportunity of getting accustomed with the terminologies used by advisory firms involved in the
merger and acquisition activities (Bowers, Hall and Srinivasan 2017). I have been able to know
about various types of factors which influence the merger and acquisition activities based on
advisory choices. Some of the other elements of the reporting aspects has been conducive in
knowing about the critical success factors associated with the project. In this section of the study
I was able to learn about the project success criteria and critical success factors which is able to

21MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
state about the main rationale for “who gains” and “who loses” in the short, medium and longer
terms and whether the gains, if they exist, are found in all cases (Van den Akker 2014).
In order to prove this notion, I have been able to implement several understanding of
merger and acquisition cycles especially in consideration of the most recent merger along with
stating the timing as success factor which indirectly influences the M&A activities. In order to
include the most relevant examples of state the rationale of my findings I have shown how
companies such as Qantas Airways has used the concept of acquisition cycle to meet the critical
success factors in both short-term and long-term M&A activity. The various interpretations made
in the study have allowed me to explore some of the other dimensions which have been
conducive in providing me the overview of merger and acquisition of the advisory firms and the
various types of services offered by them. This has been considered with various types of
product pictures of merger and acquisition process along with the representation of seller
process, buyer process and the factors affecting the win or lose situation (Brodahl and Hansen
2014).
In most of the cases I have been able to found that the margin and acquisition process is
either welcomed by the target company or the result of compulsion by the acquiring entity. The
important consideration of the second most important concept in my reflective view has been
stated with that assessment of how the merger success progressed in the global merger
acquisitions theme. This aspect has been taken into consideration with investigating the
importance of merger and acquisition activity both in the recent times and at the end of 19th
century. The various concepts and that this area have provided me with the opportunity to depict
the main role of critical success factors in perspectives of M&A firms. The literature of the study
has been further able to guide me with the significant nature of quantitative and qualitative
theories which is able to adjust about the validity of global merger acquisitions. Based on the

22MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
conduction of the main study I have gained a significant knowledge of assisting the advisory
firms in suggesting is success factors of merger and acquisition activities. In the meantime, I
have been able to acknowledge that the research is also consisting some limitations which have
been clearly debated in the literature of the project. Firstly, I have found that the research was not
a clear attempt of integrating the knowledge needed on the now criteria with the factors
associated to the scope of the study (Ossa Parra, Gutié;rrez and Aldana 2015).
Furthermore, the critical success factors were needed to be considered with the much
more considerable attention towards the success of projects on behalf of the client. However, in
this particular project I have only considered the company’s approach of viewing the success.
Subsequently, the various steps of other questions take into consideration in this study have also
helped me to gain a significant knowledge about future scope of research in this topic. The
project has given me the opportunity to learn about time performance measurement, cost
performance measurement and the critical factors which I associated to an individual project.
Some of the important subtopics these have provided me the opportunity to gain adequate
knowledge of updated risk management plan, allowing the changes for scope through which
mature scope change process may take place. The description of the main benefits to the bidder’s
shareholders during a merger and acquisition activity have provided me to relate with the
theories such as efficiency theory, monopoly theory, valuation theory and process theory. These
restrictions have been conducive for me in understanding the planning and inclusion of that
cheap synergies of various types of managerial, operation and financial functions. The outcomes
of the merger and acquisition activity have provided me the scope of process which are governed
by organizational routines, political games and individual limits for information processing
capabilities. In addition to this, the merger and acquisition activities have been able to provide
me to get a general idea of the mega deals and friends across the world based on the recent

23MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
financial environment (Tsai 2015). Some of the major trends I have been able to relate with the
past are associated to the merger and activities took place between E.on AG and Endesa SA.
I have been able to get the idea of classification of mergers and acquisitions based on the
main perspective of value chain for M&A which are categorized as horizontal, vertical or
conglomerate. In case of horizontal M&A, the target companies and the acquiring companies are
depicted as competing in the same industry. In addition to this, I have been also able to know
that, in horizontal business combination process the restructuring in business occurs as a result of
technological changes and liberalization. This particular trade is evident in industries related to
petroleum, the mobile and pharmaceuticals (Hébert 2015).
Therefore the project has assisted me in the opportunity to learn about time performance
measurement, cost performance measurement and the critical factors which I associated to an
individual project. Some of the important subtopics these have provided me the opportunity to
gain adequate knowledge of updated risk management plan, allowing the changes for scope
through which mature scope change process may take place. The description of the main benefits
to the bidder’s shareholders during a merger and acquisition activity have provided me to relate
with the theories such as efficiency theory, monopoly theory, valuation theory and process
theory. These restrictions have been conducive for me in understanding the planning and
inclusion of that cheap synergies of various types of managerial, operation and financial
functions.
The various learning objectives of the study have provided me with the opportunity to
know about the various types of classification of Mergers and acquisitions. Based on the
assessment of the report I have been able to know about the process of merger and acquisition in
a global environment. I have further able to understand the study has been conducive in
understanding the recent trends of global merger and acquisition activities with significant

24MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
impact on countries such as US and Australia. The various learning objectives of the study have
provided me with the opportunity to know about the various types of classification of Mergers
and acquisitions. Based on the assessment of the report I have been able to know about the
process of merger and acquisition in a global environment. In addition to this, I have been able to
explore in topics such as what is the main rationale for the forms in engaging in the merger and
acquisition activities and also know about the development of merger and acquisitions. Some of
the other important aspects of the study have provided the opportunity of getting accustomed
with the terminologies used by advisory firms involved in the merger and acquisition activities.

25MSC PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING
References for Section 2
Van den Akker, J. (2014) ‘Art-based learning: painting the journey of self-realisation’,
Reflective Practice, 15(6), pp. 751–765. doi: 10.1080/14623943.2014.944133.
Bowers, M. R., Hall, J. R. and Srinivasan, M. M. (2017) ‘Organizational culture and leadership
style: The missing combination for selecting the right leader for effective crisis management’,
Business Horizons, 60(4), pp. 551–563. doi: 10.1016/j.bushor.2017.04.001.
Brodahl, C. and Hansen, N. K. (2014) ‘Education Students’ Use of Collaborative Writing Tools
in Collectively Reflective Essay Papers.’, Journal of Information Technology Education, 13, pp.
91–120. Available at:
http://ezproxy.georgetowncollege.edu:2048/login?URL=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=a9h&AN=112355395.
Broten, N. (2017) An essay on the principle of population, An Essay on the Principle of
Population. doi: 10.4324/9781912281176.
Hébert, C. (2015) ‘Knowing and/or experiencing: a critical examination of the reflective models
of John Dewey and Donald Schön’, Reflective Practice, 16(3), pp. 361–371. doi:
10.1080/14623943.2015.1023281.
Ossa Parra, M., Gutié;rrez, R. and Aldana, M. F. (2015) ‘Engaging in critically reflective
teaching: from theory to practice in pursuit of transformative learning’, Reflective Practice,
16(1), pp. 16–30. doi: 10.1080/14623943.2014.944141.
Tsai, C. (2015) ‘Essay: Freedom’, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 12(1), pp. 97–98. doi:
10.1007/s11673-015-9615-y.