The objective of this article was to assess if mergers and acquisitions in Brazilian companies resulted in operating synergies and created value for shareholders. An attempt was also made to identify the existence of the correlation between three value creation measures used, with the aim of justifying their use as alternative proxies for corporate performance. A descriptive study was carried out that used the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and the Rank Test for analyzing the quarterly data of 72 Mergers & Acquisitions processes that occurred between January 1996 and December 2004. The Mergers & Acquisitions studied resulted in operating synergies and maximization of the market value of the companies surveyed and apparently of shareholder wealth. Significant correlations were also found between the value creation variables.
mergers and acquisitions; value creation; operating synergies; Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test; Rank Test
