Looking inside mergers & acquisitions databases: all of the full-service databases claim full coverage, have dozens or even hundreds of searching and reporting fields, and offer complex screening and reporting functionality.

Publication: Online

Publication Date: 01-NOV-05

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Researchers in the M&A Advisory business need the best M&A transaction data possible. All of the full-service databases claim full coverage, have dozens or even hundreds of searching and reporting fields, and offer complex screening and reporting functionality. One way to choose is to evaluate the functionality for information professionals or for end users. Another way (which I haven't seen so I undertook myself) is to examine the content of the databases. Finding all the relevant deals for the project and getting the correct transaction value and target financials are the important content qualities.

Below are the test searches and results. This study is methodical, but anecdotal. A statistically valid sample would require doing each of these tests on multiple industries, companies, and deals, and then averaging the results. However, this is more than we had before and I have found it eye-opening.

One note: Database functionality doesn't always allow doing searches that are exactly the same, but I've done equivalent searches, to the extent possible. This may account for some but not all the differences. I've noted major search equivalency problems.

I tested Bloomberg, Capital IQ, Dealogic, Mergerstat, and Thomson SDC Platinum. Because it is filings-driven, GSI's LIVEDGAR content and screening functionality are different, but I included it in the searches where possible.

I started by searching for the number of deals announced in 2004 with their disclosed values. I wanted U.S. targets and I excluded buybacks. For deal status, I specified completed, partially completed, or pending. For the deal value, I searched the field for Disclosed/Filled In, if it was available, or less than zero, if it wasn't. (See Table 1 on page 34.)

The deal value is not disclosed by the parties for many deals, especially those involving two private companies. However, some of the specific...

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