Acquisitions and Operational Efficiency Change: A Regression Analysis

Abstract: Despite much research indicating that acquisitions are unsatisfactory in generating value, in terms of stock market return, their continued and growing existence highlights that acquisitions play an essential role in the corporate landscape, and will only continue doing so moving forward.  This continuous undertaking in acquisitions despite a lacking performance inspired a thesis that is focused on viewing acquisitions through an operational perspective. The aim of the thesis is to answer the question: "What impacts the difference in operational efficiency between the group of companies, that is formed after an acquisition, and the separate companies, that operate before an acquisition?" A multiple linear regression model analysis is performed with explanatory regressors that are mainly based on the target-acquirer relation. The final model's relatively low explanatory power combined with certain model assumption violations and a challenging sample of observations harms the reliability of the significant regressors in the final model. The significant regressors are the acquirer's average annual EBIT margin growth rate before the acquisition and the cross-border regressor. The two regressors are in line with acquisition and financial accounting theory. The conclusion, however, is that analyzing acquisitions in this regard is questionable and could very well not return informative results that can be applied to future acquisitions to improve the unsatisfactory returns.