There’s just one problem: mergers and acquisitions don’t work, or at least not the way we’ve been led to believe. According to one McKinsey study, almost 70 percent of mergers fail to provide the revenue synergies they promise. A similar study by KPMG found that while 82 percent of M&A participants believed their deal was a success a year after closing, only 45 percent had done a formal postdeal review to be sure. When the researchers imposed a strict objective benchmark for success, it turned out 83 percent of the deals had actually failed.
