eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The objective of this study is to find out what kinds of issues related to the basic problems of accounting exist in the M&A performance evaluation. The objective is also to research how those problems can affect the evaluation of M&A performance and what kinds of principles should be taken into account in order to solve those problems. These effects can be either affecting the process of the performance evaluation or affecting the performance of the M&A case. This study also aims to get a deeper insight into the basic problems of accounting that need to be solved in order to gain better understanding of the performance evaluation.

METHODOLOGY AND DATA The research method is a qualitative single case study. The empirical data was mainly collected through seven semi-structured interviews of personnel working with mergers and acquisitions in the case company.

MAIN FINDINGS The main conclusion of the study is that the basic problems of accounting can have a substantial impact on the evaluation of M&A performance. If the problems are not solved, it can lead to a situation where the performance evaluation cannot be done in a reliable way. If the reliability of the performance evaluation of M&A is questioned, the evaluation adds no value into assessing whether M&A case was successful or not. It was also discovered that there are some other problems, for example cultural issues, that might have an effect on the M&A performance evaluation in addition to the basic problems of accounting. This means that even though all the basic problems are solved, the evaluation process might still be unsuccessful to produce a valuable outcome.