Deals
Daimler to Rio Tinto Show New Surge in Deals Perilous: Real M&A
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While the strongest resurgence in dealmaking since the financial crisis is cheering investors and emboldening acquirers, history shows that the largest mergers are often more trouble than they’re worth.
About two-thirds of company takeovers exceeding $20 billion since 1996 -- including the unions of Pfizer Inc. and Pharmacia Corp., Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications Inc., and Daimler-Benz AG and Chrysler Corp. -- generated losses for the acquirer’s shareholders, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The 78 buyers lagged behind the MSCI World Index by a median of 13 percentage points in the three years after completing the transactions, falling 21 percent, the data show.