Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have become inevitable phenomena in the modern corporate environment. Whether in times of boom or bust, M&As have emerged as a compelling strategy for growth that has been adopted by most of the world’s largest companies. This casebook analyses the largest deals by value undertaken by companies in different sectors. Five of the biggest ever blockbuster deals took place during the period 2000–2008. Vodafone’s acquisition of Mannesmann, valued at $202.8 billion, is, at the time of writing, the largest deal ever recorded. Other major deals include AOL/Time Warner, valued at $181.6 billion and Altria Shareholders’ spin-off of Philip Morris, valued at $113 billion. There are also the buyout of ABN Amro and AT&T’s merger with BellSouth, which were valued at $98.2 billion and $89.4 billion respectively.

并购已成为现代企业环境中不可避免的现象。无论是在经济繁荣时期还是萧条时期，并购都已成为一种引人注目的增长战略，被世界上大多数大型企业所采用。本案例书分析了不同行业的公司按价值进行的最大交易。有史以来最轰动一时的5宗交易发生在2000-2008年间。沃达丰以2028亿美元收购曼内斯曼，是迄今为止有记录以来最大的一笔交易。其他重大交易包括美国在线/时代华纳，价值1816亿美元，奥驰亚股东分拆菲利普莫里斯，价值1130亿美元。另外还有荷兰银行的收购和美国电话电报公司与贝尔南的合并，这两项交易的估值分别为982亿美元和894亿美元。