Mergers and Acquistions (McGraw-Hill)

A One-Volume, MBA-Level Course Covering Every Aspect of Today's M&A Environment

Mergers and acquisitions have always been an important financial and economic force. But today's new economy brings with it new economic rules and strategies. Mergers and Acquisitionsprovides executives with a comprehensive overview of the modern M&A marketplace, along with tips and techniques for always ensuring your organization a fair negotiation­­and advantageous conclusion­­in every M&A deal.

Today's most straightforward, comprehensive treatment of the entire M&A process, Mergers and Acquisitions provides case studies, statistics, charts, and more to help you understand:

• Valuation and accounting methods
• Legal and regulatory frameworks
• Restructuring and financial engineering
• Assessing strategic fit
• Merging corporate cultures
• Postmerger integration

Today's fast-moving business environment leaves little room for error. Let Mergers and Acquisitions go beyond theory to show you how M&A really works­­and give you the knowledge you need to strengthen your organization's current and future negotiating stance.

Look to The McGraw-Hill Executive MBA Series for straight-talking, technique-filled books, written by front-line executive education professors and modeled after the programs of top business schools. Other titles in the series include:

• Corporate Strategy
• Finance & Accounting for Nonfinancial Managers
• Sales Management

Joint ventures ... strategic alliances ... spin-offs ... carve-outs ... In recent years, the concept of "mergers and acquisitions" has come to encompass a broad range of activities. But despite many new structures, strategies, and players, the overriding goal remains the same­­to combine two or more independent entities into one, in a way that makes the whole worth substantially more than its parts.

Mergers and Acquisitions provides you with the knowledge and tools you need to prepare your firm for a productive M&A negotiation. Based on UCLA's Executive Education M&A program­­one of today's most respected programs, and a global standard for M&A excellence­­this hands-on book provides you with all the qualitative and quantitative information you need to:

• Recognize the ten powerful change forces at work today­­and how they affect the world economy in general and your firm in particular
• Understand pertinent legal and regulatory environments, and keep minor issues from becoming major deal-killers
• Structure effective deals from all standpoints­­financial, tax, and accounting
• Analyze valuation models and use them to gauge the impacts of a potential merger
• Conduct accurate valuations, to ensure deals that appear sound from a business standpoint also make financial sense
• Ensure that all M&A policies and decisions originate­­and remain­­within the general framework of your firm's strategic plan
• Establish cash flow, dividend, and share repurchase policies that benefit your company­­and enhance value for its shareholders

More than ever before, decision-makers in profitable, high-growth businesses and industries must keep on top of the latest M&A strategies and techniques. Mergers and Acquisitions combines the most valuable components of an executive seminar with the detail and insight of a graduate-level textbook, to provide you with the tools you need to fully exploit today's M&A opportunities­­and defend your firm against the unwanted takeover attempts that may occur in today's megamerger environment.

J. Fred Weston, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus Recalled of Managerial Economics and Finance at the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, where, since 1968, he has been Director of the UCLA Research Program on Takeovers and Restructuring. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1948. Dr. Weston has served as president of the American Finance Association, president of the Western Economic Association, president of the Financial Management Association, and member of the American Economic U.S. Census Advisory Committee. He has been selected as a fellow of the American Finance Association, of the Financial Management Association, and of the National Association of Business Economists, and published 147 journal articles and 31 books, including Managerial Finance, Public Policy Toward Mergers and The Art of M&A Financing and Refinancing.

Samuel C. Weaver, Ph.D., is associate professor of finance at Lehigh University, where he formerly served as the Theodore A. Lauer Adjunct Professor of Finance. Dr. Weaver spent 20 years as an executive with Hershey Foods Corporation, serving in various capacities, including director, financial planning and analysis, and is a veteran of over 100 acquisition valuations and numerous other restructuring activities.  The coauthor of Finance and Accounting for Nonfinancial Managers, he serves on the Board of Trustees of the Financial Management Association and the Board of Directors of the Eastern Finance Association.  In 1999, he received the Lehigh MBA Excellence in Teaching award.