Choose a merger between two publicly-traded companies. Address the following questions:
1. Identity of target firm and acquirer firm. What industry is each firm in?
2. What was the market capitalization of each firm, prior to the merger announcement? How big was the target firm, compared to the acquirer?
3. Stock prices of target firm, starting 3 months prior to merger and continuing through merger completion. Please clearly mark the merger announcement date on the graph.
a. What was the return on the target firm's stock, at the time of the announcement?
4. Stock prices of acquirer firm, starting 3 months prior to merger and continuing through the present time. Please clearly mark the merger announcement date and the merger completion date on the graph.
a. What was the return on the acquirer firm's stock, at the time of the announcement?
5. Was the merger paid for with cash or stock - please specify the terms. Were the terms of the merger revised after the initial announcement? In other words, in some cases the acquirer increases its offer price - please note whether or not this happened. If it did, provide the relevant details.
6. Did the target firm initially agree to the merger? If not, what happened?
7. What were the driving factors behind this merger? Please comment critically (we discussed in class good and bad reasons for merging) - do you believe that this is a good merger? Why or why not?
8. Please provide 3 facts about this merger that you found particularly interesting.
The memo should be approximately two - three pages, with relevant tables and figures attached at the back.
Please clearly specify all sources of data that you used.