In 2001, the FASB (Financial Accounting Standard Board) introduced accounting regulations SFAS 141 and SFAS 142 to improve the relevance, representational faithfulness, and comparability of financial reporting. The new standards have profoundly changed the accounting for business combinations and goodwill under US GAAP by requiring reporting entities to no longer amortize goodwill over its expected useful life, but to test for impairment annually. However, the new regulation has met sharp criticism for creating a scope for high levels of managerial discretion which may be exercised opportunistically in the accounting for goodwill. This study examines whether the proportion of purchase price allocated to goodwill differs between public and private acquisitions. We try to answer this question by carrying out a quantitative study on 481 observations, between the period of 2001 to 2005 by studying the relationship between acquirer type (Public vs. Private) and target firm characteristic on goodwill allocated, and we find the following results: 1) Public acquirers allocate higher levels of goodwill in comparison to private acquirers. (2) Market-to-book values of private target firms are not positively correlated with recorded goodwill levels.

In this study, we try to understand how the strategic rationale and financial reports are created and developed by an acquirer with no previous experience, during acquisitions. We also investigate how the acquisitional capability of an organization is built up and competence established in a company without a dedicated M&A function and internal expertise. To accomplish this, we have conducted a case study, which analyses the processes of two completed acquisitions at an unlisted Swedish company with no previous acquisition experience. The study shows that for smaller, unlisted companies, internal acquisition experience and competence are not crucial to acquisition success. The corporate group in our study compensates for the lack of experience, a dedicated M&A function and internal expertise, by employing external experts. For smaller, owner-led companies, the ability to create rapport – a feeling of mutual understanding and affinity – appears to be more important in the acquisition process than acquisition expertise. You need to have a business mindset – you don't have to be an expert in financial analysis or law – but you must have the ability to surround yourself with the right people, connect with others, create rapport and dare to take risks.

This thesis is aimed to empirically investigate the performance impact of frequent acquisitions as an aggressive merger and acquisition (M&A) strategy for an acquiring firm. In literature related to the study of M&A, a common question is whether acquisitions improve the performance of acquirers. Neither theoretical nor empirical studies have a clear view on the performance effect of M&A. Some argue positively and some are opposite. Although existing research are mixed for their arguments, a takeover is commonly perceived as a shock to the firm with a constant effect on changing business performance. This static perception of M&A creates a difficulty in explaining why firms acquire others when the performance effect is negative. To address the issue, this thesis examines the M&A effect dynamically with taking into account the role of merger frequency in affecting performance. On the basis of a large sample that consists of about 14,000 acquisitions from more than 100 countries over last 12 years, the thesis finds that the investors perceive a lower value if the acquiring firm is involved in frequent mergers. This is because more mergers are expected to attract considerable amount of management attention away from profitable activities in order to digest the challenges of new business integration at least in the short run. This “digesting constraint” argument is evident by our estimations. Firm becomes less profitable in the short run after a merger shock, and this adverse effect can be more severe if the firm is involved in more frequent mergers. Evidence of the thesis further show that, the effect of merger shocks is not static and persistent, and it changes with time. The shock affects adversely profitability in the short run, usually lasting a couple of years, and then the negative effect on performance could be turned either oppositely if the firm digests the shock successfully, or otherwise, continuously but diminishing over time if the digestion takes longer such as for frequent acquisition. This finding implies that the pace of firm resilience to a merger shock can be affected by its merger strategies. The pace can be slow if the firm pursues frequent mergers aggressively. The performance effect of a merger shock is dynamic and changes with time. The dynamic view for merger shocks from this study opens a new vision for literature in merger studies. Overall the market expectation to a merger effect on changing firm performance is quite consistently related to what has actually happened to the firm after the merger shock.

Google merged Youtube, Microsoft wants to merge Yahoo to compete. ACER declared in October 2007 that it merged the fourth largest computer manufacturer in US: Gateway. Above are the representatives of big merger and acquisition cases. Enterprises grow up through M&A is a trend recently, but are all the M&A cases bringing positive performances? The answer is negative. We can prove that through the cases of BENQ-Siemens and Acer-Counter Point which all ends in failure. Therefore this research reviewed related literatures and focused on the cases that serve Taiwan enterprises as the merger & acquirer between 1997 and 2006. In order to examine whether M&A experiences, types and acquirer¡¦s slack will affect M&A performance or not and to find out whether the factors affecting Taiwan enterprises to conduct M&A are the same with overseas firms or not. This research used multiple-regression model which have five independent variables ¡V M&A times, types, debt ratio, FCF ratio and sale scale. On the other hand, this research utilized 3 dependent variables to compare different point of view on performance, they are unit employee output value, return of total assets and income after taxes. The results show that the hypothesis that M&A experiences and types will have significant impact on M&A performance is rejected. On acquirer¡¦s slack, only sale scope has significant impact on M&A performance. When serving ROA as dependent variable, FCF ratio has significant impact, while others possess insignificant loadings. These results told us that the factors of M&A behaviors in Taiwan are different from overseas firms.

Magistriniame darbe kalbama apie nekilnojamojo daikto išreikalavimą iš sąžiningo įgijėjo. Aptariamos sąžiningo įgijėjo ir nekilnojamojo daikto sampratos. Kalbant apie sąžiningo įgijėjo sampratą, išsamiau, remiantis tiek teisinės literatūros, tiek teisminės praktikos analize, aptariamas sąžiningumo vertinimas bei supratimas. Tai pat darbe paliečiamas sąžiningo įgijėjo ir savininko atribojimas. Nekilnojamojo daikto sąvoka, kaip nesukelianti didelių teisinių diskusijų išreikalavimo iš sąžiningo įgijėjo kontekste, aptariama tik trumpai. Daugiausia dėmesio šiame darbe skiriama situacijų, kada nekilnojamasis turtas gali būti išreikalautas iš sąžiningo įgijėjo, analizei. Plačiausiai iš jų aptariamos išreikalavimo galimybės, kai nekilnojamasis daiktas įgytas neatlygintinai, varžytinėse ar nusikaltimo (įvykdyto perleidžiant nekilnojamąjį daiktą asmens, nesančio savininku) pasekoje. Taip pat trumpai aptariamos ir kitos situacijos, kai nekilnojamasis daiktas, gali būti išreikalautas iš sąžiningo įgijėjo. Darbe aprašomi nekilnojamojo daikto išreikalavimo būdai ir pasekmės, daugiau dėmesio skiriant vindikacijai, trumpai aptariant restituciją (kaip galimą varžytinių negaliojimo pasekmę). Autorė taip pat pateikia naują požiūrį į nekilnojamojo daikto išreikalavimą ir jo pasekmes iš sąžiningo įgijėjo. Dėl darbo apimties reikalavimų, magistriniame darbe buvo išsamiausiai aptariamos tik Lietuvos nekilnojamojo daikto išreikalavimo praktinės bei teorinės problemos, nesigilinant į užsienio šalių... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Master work refers to exaction of the real estate property from innocent acquirer. The perceptions of the innocent purchaser and immovable object were discussed. Analyzing the concept of innocent purchaser in more detail and in accordance with both the legal literature and case law analysis, the evaluation of fairness and understanding were made. This work also touched a division between innocent purchaser and owner. The concept of real estate object as issue that do not create a major legal debates in the context of exaction from the innocent purchaser were discussed only briefly. This master work focuses on analysis of situations in which real estate property may be exacted from the innocent acquirer. The possibilities of exacting real estate property which acquired free of charge, during competitive bidding or in crime (if a transfer of real estate property were made by person other than the owner) were most widely discussed. The situations where the real estate property may be exacted from just acquirer are also briefly discussed. The master work describes the methods and consequences of exacting real estate property by putting more emphasis to vindication and briefly discussing restitution (as a possible consequence of invalid competitive bidding). The author also provides a new approach to the exaction of real estate property from a just acquirer and its consequences. On the scope of work requirements, the master work had comprehensively discussed only practical and... [to full text]

The Bergman & Beving sphere is a group of Swedish companies that have been successfulduring the last decades as serial acquirers. This study examines how the Bergman & Bevingsphere operates and how management makes capital allocation decisions; this has beenexamined through interviews with key individuals and large owners within these companiesand has by that taken a qualitative approach to the research questions outlined.The business model of the Bergman & Beving sphere revolves around continuously acquiringniched companies, with a long track record of profitable growth and with a culture that alignswith that of their own. What distinguishes them from many serial acquirers is that they do nottry to integrate the acquired company into a bigger one and/or find synergies between them,but instead, they operate with a highly decentralized model where the companies actindependently. The group has for a long time used internal financial metrics, with theirtrademark metric being Profit/Working capital (P/WC), to guide their subsidiaries and aidmanagement in capital allocation decisions.

This thesis "Contractual acquisition of ownership" deals with the fundamental questions of contractual acquisition of property law in the Czech Civil Code. Some of the parts of the project are comparative. The author takes into account both the older national regulations of contractual acquisition as well as the different approaches in the same field in some foreign legal systems. In the introduction the author highlights the importance of property law (this right forms one of three fundamental pillars of private law - together with "man" and "contract") as well as the possibility to transfer it to another. First chapter shows that - from the general point of view - acquisition of property law as such may be based on a number of different modes. The paper contains an overview of particular modes and its dividing into relevant categories. The acquisition based on contracts is a type of derivative acquisition. Next chapter is devoted to some general questions of contractual transfer of ownership. Some decisive (general and special) legal principles are offered: namely the principle of the autonomy of the will, the principle of the absence of formality of contracts and finally the "nemo dat" principle (nemo dat quod non habet). This part of the project also focuses on the basic conceptual elements of...

La présence des acquéreurs étrangers dans le capital des sociétés cotées soulève de nombreuses questions au niveau de la recherche académique. Les études menées jusqu’à présent sont rarement concluantes quant à l’effet réel des investisseurs étrangers sur la performance des sociétés cibles. C’est la raison pour laquelle nous avons voulu appréhender l’incidence de la nationalité des acquéreurs à la lumière des théories de la gouvernance d’entreprise. En nous basant sur une approche synthétique de la gouvernance d’entreprise, d’une part, nous avons cherché à comprendre les changements apportés par l’acquéreur étranger au niveau de la gouvernance disciplinaire : changement au niveau de la taille, indépendance, cumul des fonctions, présence et présidence du conseil d’administration ; d’autre part, nous nous sommes intéressés, via l’approche cognitive, aux différences culturelles comme amplificateur des coûts cognitifs. Notre étude a porté sur les acquisitions effectuées aux États-Unis, sur la période 1994 à 2008, par des acquéreurs étrangers ou américains. Les acquéreurs étrangers considérés sont les acquéreurs français, allemands et japonais.Nos résultats montrent que le niveau d’implication des acquéreurs étrangers, dans la gouvernance de la cible, se traduit par des changements différents. Quant à la dimension cognitive, la distance culturelle entre les deux partenaires et le départ du top management, influencent la performance de la cible. Nous avons trouvé, également, que l’acquéreur domestique (américain) a un effet plus favorable sur la performance, comparativement aux acquéreurs étrangers considérés dans notre étude. Au niveau des nationalités, nous montrons que les acquéreurs de nationalité japonaise influencent négativement la performance de leurs cibles. Les acquéreurs français sont ceux qui procèdent le plus à des changements au niveau de la gouvernance disciplinaire ainsi qu’au niveau de la dimension cognitive avec un transfert de connaissances plus important vers les cibles. / The presence of foreign acquirers in the capital of listed companies raises many questions for academic research. The studies that have been conducted to date rarely generate conclusive findings about the impact of foreign investors on the performance of listed targets. This is why we sought to get a better understanding of the role of the nationality of acquirers in the light of theories of corporate governance. Based on a synthetic approach to corporate governance, we have sought to understand, on the one hand, changes brought by the foreign acquirer in the corporate governance system of the target firm under the disciplinary view : change in size, independence, CEO duality, presence and chair of the board of directors; on the other hand, we examined, under the cognitive approach, the cultural differences as an amplifier of cognitive costs. Our study focuses on acquisitions in the United States over the period 1994-2008, carried out by foreign or domestic acquirers. The foreign acquirers considered in our study are the French, German and Japanese acquirers.Our results show that the level of involvement of foreign acquirers in the corporate governance of the target, results in various changes in the corporate governance of the target firms. Our results suggest also, for the cognitive dimension of corporate governance, that the cultural distance between the two partners and the departure of top management, influence the performance of the target firms. We found also that the domestic acquirers (U.S acquirers) improve performance of the target firms after acquisition more than foreign acquirers considered in our study. In terms of nationalities, we show that the acquirers of Japanese nationality influence negatively the performance of their targets. The French acquirers are the ones who brought the most important changes into the disciplinary governance ; at the cognitive governance level, they implement an important transfer of knowledge to their targets firms.

[pt] No contexto da indústria de adquirência, uma adquirente é uma empresa que facilita a comunicação entre um varejista (online ou loja física) e os bancos emissores. Para um adquirente, é crucial determinar o potencial transacional de cada varejista para orientar estratégias adequadas de precificação e gestão de risco. Neste trabalho, propomos uma estrutura para avaliar adequadamente o potencial transacional de qualquer varejista usando as transações de seus pares. A estrutura proposta é baseada na construção de um contrafactual probabilístico que usa a regressão não paramétrica do kernel Nadaraya-Watson para modelar diferentes padrões sazonais, tendências e ciclos de negócios. Propomos uma metodologia integrada de processamento de dados para separar e validar os dados não afetados por intervenções para construir nosso modelo contrafactual probabilístico não paramétrico. O framework proposto é um poderoso sistema de suporte à decisão para gestão de receitas de uma adquirente, com aplicações diretas para precificação, detecção de churn e, de forma mais geral, gerenciamento de receita. Os resultados empíricos corroboram a eficácia do método em relação aos benchmarks relevantes. / [en] In the payment industry context, a merchant acquirer is a firm that facilitates communication between a retailer (online or brick–and–mortar store) and the issuing banks. For an acquirer, it is crucial to determine the transactional potential of each retailer to guide proper pricing and risk management strategies. In this work, we propose a framework to properly assess the transactional potential of any retailer using the transactions of its peers. The proposed framework is based on the construction of a probabilistic counterfactual that uses non-parametric Nadaraya-Watson kernel regression to model differing seasonal patterns, trends and business cycles. We propose an integrated data processing methodology to separate and validate the data not affected by interventions to construct our non-parametric probabilistic counterfactual model. The proposed framework is a powerful decision support system for a merchant acquirer revenue management, with direct applications to pricing, churn detection and, more generally, revenue management. Empirical results corroborate the effectiveness of the method against relevant benchmarks.

關於信用卡詐欺風險管控的研究，係非常專業的問題，除了瞭解信用卡各項作業程序外，必須親自參與實務上的管控經驗，才能充分瞭解現有市場上，信用卡詐欺所發生之原因、詐欺模式、手法與趨勢，也唯有做到理論結合相關實務管控經驗，才能研究出有效的防制策略。目前在實務上防制信用卡詐欺方面，由本文中可發現，業者與警政單位在處理信用卡風險管控與詐欺案件時，有非常多的盲點與困難，也突顯出其專業能力上之不足，因此導致信用卡詐欺問題之嚴重。 在防制信用卡詐欺研究當中，筆者第一次嘗試將信用卡實務運作之模式貢獻出來 ; 以過去到現在的實務經驗，將信用卡所發生的案例，來探究其發生的原因 ; 以運用分析的方法，來建立各項風險管控措施 ; 以闡釋各項業務之作業風險，來遏止風險損失之發生 ; 以紮實的教育訓練教材，讓特約商店做好第一道的防衛 ; 以科學的統計方法，來研究防衛參數與增加偵測系統的防衛效能 ; 以實務管控的經驗，來遏止其犯罪手法的翻新 ; 以實際案件調查的經驗，來瓦解詐欺集團的組織，所以必須瞭解信用卡整體運作的關係與詐欺手法，才能深入瞭解各項風險管控問題，並結合預防作業、偵測系統、調查作業的功能，方能充分發揮信用卡業務詐欺風險管控的效能。 除了建立完整的風險管控作業之外，在第六章之建議事項中，就主管機關、司法機關、警政單位、發卡業者、收單業者、特約商店、持卡人與國際組織等方面 ; 提出個人具體之建言，藉以喚起社會各界對信用卡詐欺問題之重視，以推動損害防阻之功，徹底解決當前所發生之信用卡詐欺問題。 / The research on credit card risk management is a specialized field. Besides the need of understanding the various operational processes, personal involvement’s and practical experiences in respect of credit card risk management are essential in order to fully appreciate the reason for credit card frauds in the current market. An effective credit card fraud prevention strategy consists of the theoretical aspects and practical experiences of credit card fraud management. Based on this paper, it appears that strategies of credit card fraud prevention are solely lacking in the current market. This is because the business sectors and police department encounters numerous ‘blind spots’ and problems when tackling with fraud issues. Also, the lack of professionalism in control and prevention strategies resulted in serious credit card fraud issues. In this research, the author would attempt to showcase for the first time the credit card’s practical working models;1) to try to investigate and understand the reasons for credit card frauds by reviewing past and present real life cases; 2) to develop various risk management methodologies via credit card risks analysis; 3) to explain the various businesses’ operational risks to reduce if not prevent loss occurrences; 4) to constantly upgrade /educate the merchant banks with solid training programmers to make them an effective first line of defense; 5) to employ scientific statistical methods to aid in the research of any defensive mechanisms as well as to increase the effectiveness of early detective systems, if any; 6) to make use of practical credit card risk management experiences in order to prevent repeat offences; 7) to utilize real life investigative experiences to dissolve credit card syndicates and/or groups. Therefore, know the relation of whole operation of credit card and modus operandi could understand in depth of every risk management issue, and combine the function of preventing operation, detection system, investigation process can be fully developed efficiency for credit card risk management. In addition to establish sophisticated a developing risk management methodology, the author has directed his personal opinions to the various industry players such as the regulatory bodies, policing units, credit card issuers, acquiring banks, merchant banks and credit card users. In chapter 6 of the recommendations, he attempts to draw the public’s attention on the seriousness of credit card frauds that exists in our society. He also hopes to completely eradicate the issues of credit card frauds by actively promoting the risk prevention methodology of credit card frauds.