It's well known that most mergers and acquisitions fail. KPMG found 83% of mergers didn't boost shareholder value. Another study by PwC found the company's stock typically fell 3 to 4% after an acquisition.
Is this because the companies don't do a good job blending cultures? Or is it because one company hides the facts? Management gurus have cited a slew of factors, but a key one left off their list: sleep deprivation.
The American culture celebrates dealmakers who slave through the night, but going 24 hours without sleep, or a week of sleeping 4 or 5 hours a night, induces an impairment in cognitive capacity equivalent to being drunk, according to Charles Czeisler, professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School. Twenty percent of car crashes are attributed to nothing more complex than lack of sleep, yet still executives take the red eye, jump into the rental car and negotiate complex mergers.
Is anyone surprised that these deals turn out to be billion dollar mistakes? Skeptical? Read about these five big deals.
