Seminar in Financial Accounting

This seminar aims at providing insights into research on mergers & acquisitions (M&A) and their financial accounting implications. M&A are among the most important, and most complex, decision problems that company managers can take. The transactions often involve large sums of money, and they can profoundly change the size and structure of companies, with potentially large effects on firm value. Thus, investors and other firm stakeholders should have an interest in transparent and reliable financial accounting and reporting on M&A transactions. In this seminar, we will focus on a few select areas of current academic research. The seminar will also equip you with essential expertise in academic research that will be helpful to you when you subsequently work on your Bachelor (and Master) thesis. A further benefit of the seminar is that you will train your presentation skills, an important competency for academics and executives alike.

Seminar topics:

1.            Mergers & acquisitions – who gains, and who doesn’t?

2.            The financing effects of mergers & acquisitions

3.            Mergers & acquisitions – The monitoring role of financial analysts

4.            Mergers & acquisitions: Debt market effects

5.            M&A accounting – Is goodwill an asset?

6.            M&A accounting – The goodwill amortization debate

7.            M&A acquisition price allocation and determination of goodwill

8.            The determinants of goodwill impairment

Seminar timeline:

Monday, 22 January, 11:30 – 15:15: Kick-off meeting

Thursday, 7 March, 8:00 – 17:00: Seminar presentations

Personal attendance of the kick-off meeting and the seminar presentations is required.