TY - JOUR AB - This study provides new evidence on the nature of value creation in M&A activity based on a sample of giant pharmaceutical M&As and independent non‐M&A rival firms. Relying on multiple indicators of performance, their post‐M&A performance was compared with their pre‐M&A performance as well as with the performance of other major pharmaceutical firms that have not been involved in M&A activity. Based on three measures of operating M&A performance, it has been noted in general that no value creation was realized in the sample M&As in terms of research productivity, return on investment, and profit margin. The sample M&As had lower research productivity than that of both pre‐M&A and independent non‐M&Arival firms. In a similar vein, with regard to return on investment, M&As were not better than their pre‐M&A firms, but performed relatively better than their non‐M&A rivals. As far as the profit margin is concerned, the sample M&As, however, appeared to have better performance than pre‐M&Afirms and almost on par with the non‐M&A rivals. VL - 15 IS - 2 SN - 1525-383X DO - 10.1108/1525383X200700007 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/1525383X200700007 AU - Demirbag Mehmet AU - Ng Chang‐Keong AU - Tatoglu Ekrem PY - 2007 Y1 - 2007/01/01 TI - Performance of Mergers and Acquisitions in the Pharmaceutical Industry: A Comparative Perspective T2 - Multinational Business Review PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 41 EP - 62 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -