Session 24: Acquisition Valuation (NYU Stern Valuation)
by Aswath Damodaran · NYU Stern
NYU Stern class session on why most acquisitions destroy value, decomposing the price paid into synergy and control components, valuing each explicitly rather than by rule of thumb, and cataloguing seven recurring sins in deal justification.
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In/Organic Podcast
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Working paper separating operating from financial synergy, showing how to value each with explicit cash-flow assumptions, examining how synergy value is split between acquirer and target, and testing empirically how much synergy deals deliver versus how much is paid. Synergy is the word used to justify nearly every acquisition and almost never quantified. This paper forces the discipline: which cash flow line moves, when it moves, what discount rate applies, and who captures the value once a premium is paid.
Takeover Law and Practice 2026
Annual treatise from the firm that invented the poison pill, covering directors' fiduciary duties, merger agreement mechanics, deal protections, hostile tender offers, activism defense, proxy contests, and structural alternatives under Delaware and federal law.
Applied Mergers and Acquisitions
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