Implicaciones en el análisis de la información sobre la fusiónEvidencia empírica de la utilización alternativa de los métodos contables

Abstract

Accounting for mergers has long been a controversial topic. Previous research suggests that there are firm-specific characteristics associated with the choice of accounting method for mergers and also that there are differential capital market reactions to pooling and purchase methods. The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of the accounting method for mergers on financial statements of the resulting entity. The sample in dudes 30 Spanish mergers between listed companies which took place between 1991 and 1997. The results of univariate analysis show that there are significant differences between the purchase and the pooling of interest methods for all variables used, suggesting that financial statements differ under the two methods. However, when the logit regression was used for the multivariate analysis, the differences between the two methods were found statistically significant only for goodwill relative total assets and growth in profitability. Furthermore, the research findings imply that there is considerable management discretion regarding the choice of accounting method for mergers in Spain.