Researching… M&A
30/03/2021
Mergers and acquisitions are never very far from the news. But if you need to find out about a transaction in depth, where can you source the details you might not find in the papers?
M&A Specifics
Capital IQ is an ideal starting point for researching M&A, providing access not just to detailed company financials, but also deal specifics for 1000’s of deals globally back to the 1980s. For that reason alone, we would recommend Capital IQ as your starting point for this kind of research.
For deals involving listed companies, the easiest way in is via the ‘Company Overview’ for that firm, pictured below. Choose ‘Transactions’ from the bottom of the left hand menu then ‘M&A/Private Placements’.
To search for deals by criteria, use ‘Screening’ and choose options from ‘M&A transactions’, accessible from the navigation menu at the top of the screen. Select ‘Screening ‘ > ‘Transactions’ > ‘M&A’ from the criteria options to build your search.
Bloomberg also has its own M&A Dashboard where you can search by specifics or simply browse deals by criteria. Access this page using Bloomberg code <MA>. Please contact MIRC for access information.
Background information
Once you have worked your way through the data available in Capital IQ and Bloomberg, SOM Library has a variety of other resources that will also be valuable in your research. These include:
- Background information such as company and industry profiles and reports from sources like FitchConnect, IBISWorld and Factiva.
- Stock market data including share prices and indices are available from both Bloomberg and Workspace. Bloomberg’s charting function is fantastic so please ask if you need help creating any graphs.
- Brokers and analysts’ reports are essential reading from the point where a deal was rumoured until well after the completion date. What else was happening at that time? Was there interest from other companies? Capital IQ is our best source for these. Bloomberg also contains some analysts’ reports. Please contact SOM Library staff for further information.
- The national press will also be a valuable source of information. Check out Factiva for coverage in newspapers worldwide.
- SDC Platinum (available via Workspace) contains the most comprehensive deals dataset available with data back to the 1950s. It is a resource which is more suited to large scale ‘number-crunching’ and therefore more suitable for gathering data for a thesis or research purposes.
As ever, any questions, please pop in or contact us here!
Feature image from Pixabay. Available at: https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/11/26/07/47/hands-1063442_960_720.jpg.
Categories & Tags:
Leave a comment on this post:
You might also like…
Systematic Literature Review – combining your search strings
Our previous posts on the systematic review have looked at: Systematic Literature Review – Where do I begin? Systematic Literature Review – Selecting your Sources Systematic Literature Review - Identifying your search terms and constructing ...
Academic writing and being critical
Academic writing is daunting. Capturing all your thoughts and analysis and putting them down onto paper in some sort of understandable fashion is a challenge. Did you know we have resources in our Cranfield Study ...
Bank holiday hours for Library Services: Monday 6 May
Library Services staff will be taking a break on Monday 6 May for the early May bank holiday. You will still be able to access all the resources and help you need via our library ...
Cranfield’s Manufacturing and Materials Students’ Showcase Innovation at Project Day
On 26 April, Cranfield University buzzed with excitement as students from across our Manufacturing and Materials MSc programmes presented their group projects at the annual Group Project Presentation Day. This annual event presents ...
Come to a virtual study session in May
What are virtual study sessions? These are online study sessions facilitated by Library staff, where you can study independently alongside other students via Teams. They are a great way for you to dedicate specific time ...
Getting started on your School of Management thesis
Writing a thesis, business plan, internship project or company project can be a daunting task, and you might have some uncertainty or questions around how to get started. This post will share some ideas and ...