[.ca] Mergers, Acquisitions, and Other Restructuring ... (ISBN 0123740126)

Insufficient and Lacking:
This book is quite disorganized. It seems that the author would have been better served to take some time out to go over the book again prior to releasing it. It reads like a disorganized combination of miscellaenous ideas. The result is a confused presentation that neither serves the practitioner nor the academic MBA student. The book also seem to rehash parts of a treatment of M & A that has been out for many years in other books such as Gaughan's Mergers Acquisitions and Corporate Restructurings. This book does not add to the field but merely repeats what is already out there in other books and does so in a poorly organized way.

Examples, Examples, and More Wonderful Examples:
Unlike so many books on this subject, you do not have to be a Stanford MBA to understand the author. The writing is crisp, clear, and to the point. While the author covers a great deal of material, there is little wasted verbiage. The author does a good job of blending theory and practice in his writing, while drawing heavily on numerous academic studies to substantiate the points being made. The book is chock full of lucid examples to illustrate ideas that are commonly used by investment bankers, brokers, and other analysts. I have read a number of finance books both in school and in my own practice which claim to discuss such challenging topics as M & A and this is one of the few that does an effective job. This book is clearly for the serious student, i.e., one who is interested in getting a solid grounding in the subject. Those looking for a passing acquaintance with the subject should stick with the trade press and the WSJ.

Best in Class:
I believe this book can be readily classified as best in class in terms of completeness, ease of reading, copious use of examples and business cases, inclusion of solutions to case studies in the book, writing style, and currentness. I have been teaching corporate finance for a number of years. This is by far the best book on M & A that I have seen. My students have found it highly useable, as it doesn't presuppose an in-depth knowledge of accounting and finance as do other books on the subject. Moreover, while this book is extremely comprehensive, it is tied around a central theme which illustrates how the various activitie involved in an M & A transaction interact. The quality of the cases is also quite high. They are current, and they are inserted into the text at timely moments to illustrate key points. The author also displays an uncanny ability to explain complicated subjects in a clear, concise way without "dumbing it down" for the relatively sophisticated reader. Many of the case studies also come with solutions, so the reader, not having the expertise of the author, has some idea how to tackle the case. This also eliminates the need to buy a separate text with case studies or solutions to case studies found in the text used by the students. Unlike some texts, the author is not consumed by a need to do a detailed discussion of the literature, resulting in page after page of torturous prose containing minutiae, much of which is contradictory and whose results are amazingly statistically insignificant. Mercifully, this author has discovered ways to illustrate key points and summarize key conclusions with recent academic studies. The text also provides an exhaustive listing of relevant literature. This book is clearly for anyone who is serious about learning a complex and challenging subject such as M & A.

Best business book I've ever read:
I am in the process of completing my MBA. I have had the pleasure of using this book in my graduate class on mergers and acquisitions. This book was written with the student in mind...clear, filled with very helpful examples and highly relevant case studies, and extremelly well documented. It made the subject come alive for me and helped me understand how M & A utilizes all aspects of what I have learned in various business classes during my undergraduate and graduate years. Upon completing the book, I felt that I had an excellent understanding of the subject matter. I wish I could say this about so many of the other books I have used in the myriad business courses I have taken over the years. This book is definitely a keeper for my personal library as a great reference book on the subject.

Great book with so many recent landmark transactions:
This book contains so many of what must be considered recent pivotal transactions such as AOL and Time Warner, Pfizer and Warner Lambert, Exxon and Mobil, Travelers and Citicorp, etc. It also looks at interesting cross-border deals such as Allianz's purchase of Pimco, Vodafone and Mannesmann, and Daimler's acquisition of Chrysler. The book also addresses some interesting mergers of internet companies such as Excite and @Home. I loved the stimulating discussion of how Tyco and Allied Signal engaged in a game of chess over AMP, matching each others' moves tit for tat. Other recent high profile transactions are used to illustrate how companies can bolster their value through IPOs (e.g., United Parcel Services) and spin-offs (e.g., Hewlett-Packard's spin-off of Agilent). The book even discusses in detail the antitrust implications of the Microsoft case. All in all the book is a treasure chest of stories about highly news worthy deals, each of which is used to illustrate key elements of the M & A process.