<p></p><p></p>Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) reshape the corporate landscape helping companies expand market share and gain a strategic advantage. The ability to understand and analyze these transactions is a crucial skill. The first step in acquiring that skill is being able to gather and analyse information on M&As from public sources, such as financial statements. This textbook helps its readers better analyze M&A transactions using information provided in financial statements. Covering accounting and reporting of consolidations, goodwill, non-controlling interests, step acquisitions, spin-offs, equity carve-outs, joint ventures, leveraged buyouts, disposal of subsidiaries, special purpose entities, and taxes, it focuses on the link between underlying economic events and the information in financial statements and how this link affects the assessment of corporate performance. The first part of the book provides description of the accounting rules governing M&A transactions, while t