The 1990s featured the most intense period of mergers and acquisitions in U.S. economic history. This period is now recognized as the fifth merger wave in U.S. history. Merger waves are periods of unusually intense merger and acquisition activity. There have been five such periods since the start of the twentieth century, with the previous one occurring in the 1980s. This wave featured many record-breaking mergers. When it ended in the late 1980s, many thought that there would be an extended period of time before another one began. However, after a short hiatus, an even stronger merger wave took hold, far eclipsing that of the 1980s. The merger wave of the 1990s was path breaking due to the dollar value of the transactions and the unusually high number of deals. While the fourth wave of the 1980s was known for both its megamergers and its colourful hostile deals, the fifth wave has featured far larger deals, as well as a good supply of hostile transactions.

While the fourth merger wave of the 1980s was largely confined to the United States, large-scale mergers and acquisitions finally made their way to Europe in the mid-1990s.In recent years, cross-border deals within Europe have grabbed the headlines. Even hostile takeovers, long thought to be exclusively American phenomena, started becoming more common in Europe. This is underscored by the fact that the biggest deal of all time was the Vodafone-Mannesmann $183 billion hostile takeover. In addition to deals within Europe, trans-Atlantic deals, with European buyers of U.S. companies and vice versa, started to become commonplace. With the development of the European Union and the erosion of nationalistic barriers as the continent moved to a unified market structure with a common currency, companies began to see their market as all of Europe and more. It became clear that a European consolidation was in order. Although there are many indications that there will be realizable benefits from such a consolidation, only time will reveal the magnitude of these benefits.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, several consulting firms commissioned surveys concerning the outcome of recent mergers. The surveys and related analyses were used to examine three general questions: First, did the mergers tend to achieve the goals and objectives of the executives involved in the deals? Second, on a more objective basis, did the deals enhance shareholder value relative to industry benchmarks? That is, were the deals a financial success?

Third, and perhaps most important to the consultants, what were the characteristics of the more successful deals compared to those of the less successful deals? The surveys tend to focus on larger, transnational mergers and acquisitions examining the views of top managers in the acquiring companies regarding the success or failure of a deal. The questions to be answered often include the original purpose of the merger, how the merger performed relative to plan and expectations, how the acquiring firm went about the post-merger integration process, what types of synergies or strategic advantage were expected and achieved, and what types of problems developed in implementing the merger.

In addition to summarizing and analyzing the results of the interviews, the consulting studies often bring objective data to bear on deals covered by the surveys, examining whether the post-merger stock prices rose or fell relative to the pre-merger trend and/or relative to the industry average share price. The results of this financial analysis often differ from those obtained in the executive survey portion, because the firm perhaps succeeded in the deal, but paid too much for the assets. In that instance, executives might think that the deal achieved their strategic and cost reduction objectives (e.g., reducing real costs or positioning the firm for future growth), but it did not achieve an increase in shareholder wealth. Indeed, unless the deal improves the position of the firm relative to its rivals in the race for consumer patronage, it may not increase shareholder wealth at all.

The first question – did the deal meet the objectives of its creators? – receives a positive response in most of the surveys. Executives often indicate that their mergers achieved their objectives in 70% to 80% of cases.3 Many of these same studies, however, indicate that the full potential of the merger was not attained. One can readily ask whether these surveys, using executive opinions as a benchmark for success, provide a valid test, because one can hardly expect the executives involved in the deal and responsible for its success to be unbiased evaluators of the deal.

The second question – was the deal a financial success? – Often elicits a negative response.

• When compared to industry share price indices or broad-based averages, mergers are often found to succeed less than half the time. In many cases transactions fail to enhance shareholder value (as measured against overall stock market performance, industry average returns, pre-merger trends, or a variety of other definitions). If, however, the trend found in KPMG’s 1999 and 2001 surveys is correct, firms are getting better at doing mergers and are less frequently reducing share value.4
• Revenue growth is found to decline post-merger for both the target and the acquiring firm in majority of cases.

2. Research Problem Statement:

To evaluate the Mergers and Acquisition process and to evaluate the post merger integration through various business consulting reviews.

3. Hypothesis:

H1: Merger and Acquisition process has direct relation with the financial performance of the organisation.

H2: Mergers & acquisition is directly related to the cultural changes inside the organisation.

H3: Mergers and Acquisition process is inversely rela