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'To invite disappointment or worse': governance, audit and due diligence in the Ferranti-ISC merger

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Anna Tilba, Professor John Wilson

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Abstract

Mergers and acquisitions frequently destroy shareholder value, and UK companies have a particularly poor record in US deals. But outcomes are rarely as calamitous as in the case of the British electronics group Ferranti which in 1987 entered into a significant merger with the US company International Signal and Control Group (ISC). The combined group had collapsed by 1993. Our analysis of the case, seen in the light of more recent corporate failures such as the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), leads us to question whether the UK’s ‘idiosyncratic mix’ of corporate governance mechanisms can ever effectively constrain the flawed and dictatorial decision-making of dominant individuals.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Billings M, Tilba A, Wilson J

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Business History

Year: 2016

Volume: 58

Issue: 4

Pages: 453-478

Online publication date: 15/09/2015

Acceptance date: 20/08/2015

Date deposited: 12/10/2015

ISSN (print): 1743-7938

ISSN (electronic): 0007-6791

Publisher: Routledge

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2015.1085973

DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2015.1085973

Notes: Published Online: 15 September 2015

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