Did these deals have positive outcomes?
Mergers and acquisitions are a lightning rod for criticism. History is littered with mergers in which the real world result looks nothing like the rosy forecasts that were used to sell the deal to shareholders, regulators, and the businesses’ customers.
From the $111 billion AOL TimeWarner debacle that led to the largest-ever annual loss for any public company to a more recent $20 billion tie-up of Facebook and WhatsApp, which has led to little more than headlines about internal feuds, big deals often end in big busts. But not all deals end in disaster, as many of the biggest M&A transactions on this list worked out well for all parties involved.
In the slideshow that follows, we’ll walk you through the nine largest deals that have been announced or closed since 2008, dive into the reasoning behind each deal, and where possible, look at the ultimate outcome for each transaction.
