Across pharma, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are not so much unicorn as more bang-average pony. Indeed, since 1985 the Institute for Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances has clocked more than 11,500 deals in the industry.
Most of these deals fail. You know the stats – anywhere from 50-90% are said to fail to close or fail to reach the expected value for the acquirer (or both parties in a merger).
Personally, I’m not sure a deal that fails to close is necessarily a failure – if due diligence uncovers something unattractive, that’s a good reason not to proceed. Or if the non-progression is down to the actions of one egomaniac, that saves another organisation from his/her damage. No matter how many times I see the data though, I am still taken aback – it truly is Einstein’s definition of insanity.
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