I’ve heard that this has been a big year for mergers and acquisitions.Is this true?
The short answer to that question is, yes. Recently another big merger was announced. Dow Chemical and DuPont are planning to combine their businesses. If the merger is approved by regulators in each of the individual countries, it will be the 18th largest merger ever completed. The estimated time required to complete the process is 2 years. The resulting combined company would be worth $130 billion.
One might ask why the two companies would bother merging at all. It turns out that the combined companies have identified $3 billion dollars in annual cost savings. The companies suggest that such a figure would translate to $30 billion in market value. In addition, DuPont will be shedding $700 million in costs before the process starts. Dow will cut $300 million. Until the process ends, shareholders of each company will hold 50 percent of the combined company.
All is not said and done with this agreement, however. Regulators have shown that they are not comfortable with the enormous number of mergers this year and may look to intervene here in the United States. The reason would be that mergers can be seen as anticompetitive. Regulators have stepped in between Office Depot and Staples recently because that deal was seen as anticompetitive. To try to head off any potential interruption from regulators, the merged company would plan to split into three separate companies: an agricultural company, a material science company and a specialty products company. However, the new agricultural company would still be the industry’s largest.
This potential deal ranks fifth in terms of value of all potential deals announced this year. The largest so far is a potential merger between Pfizer and Allergan, valued at $160 billion. The next is a potential merger between Anheuser-Busch, InBev and SABMiller valued at $117.4. The third largest is a potential merger between Royal Dutch Shell and BG Group valued at $81.5 billion, and the fourth largest is a potential merger between Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable valued at $79.5 billion. All of the aforementioned deals are still pending.
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