70 Mergers & Acquisitions Bigger than the GDP of Small Countries

Revealed – Index of biggest mergers & acquisitions over the past five years

– Verizon’s merger with Vodafone was the most expensive at $130 billion and surpassed the GDP of 154 countries

– The Pharmaceutical Industry saw the highest profile deals with a $318 billion contribution

The potential for increasing market share, reducing competition and charging higher prices through monopolistic control are a commercial dream of all big mergers & acquisitions. However, not all mergers & acquisitions are created equal. While some achieve domination, others pale in comparison to their hefty price tags.

By indexing all seventy mergers & acquisitions and comparing their prices to the GDP of entire countries, online forex trading broker ForexTime (FXTM) have been able to gain a greater understand of the staggering financial involvement. Furthermore, by analyzing the stock prices prior and post completion we are able to postulate whether success is indicative of the price paid.

Out of all deals that had occurred over the past five years, the top ten alone equated to over $850 billion. The most expensive merger occurred in 2014 when Verizon bought out Verizon Wireless Stake from Vodafone. With a valuation of $130 billion, this surpasses the GDP of 154 different countries.

Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods was equivalent to the entire GDP of Nicaragua and exceeded over 82 different countries. Jeff Bezos’ strategic thinking ultimately paid its dividends and stock prices closed $986.80 higher than a year after the deal was completed. Alternatively, Google’s acquisition of the HTC Smartphone Team was met by skepticism on the London Stock Exchange and stock’s fell by $74.63.

All mergers & acquisitions are underpinned by employees. Hence, as a further variable we assessed total number of employees affected. Strategy and organization is critical in ensuring a smooth employee transition. If not executed properly there can be serious ramifications on employee harmony and profitability. Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods also saw them incorporate the largest workforce of 613,000.

More can be found out about the study and the accompanying index on FXTM’s dedicated webpage.