Motives of Enterprise Mergers and Acquisitions and Short-term Market Effects: An Empirical Analysis of Siemens Healthineers’ Case

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) play an important role in promoting the strategic transformation and market expansion of enterprises. However, judging from the results, the performance of many enterprises after M&A fails to meet expectations, and even brings certain losses. Firstly, this paper explores the reasons why enterprises choose M&A from the perspective of acquirer and target, and finds that the acquirer mainly wants to expand its advantages, while the target is relatively passive in the face of difficulties. Additionally, this paper selects the specific case of Siemens Healthineers’ acquisition of Varian, uses the Abnormal Return (AR) and Cumulative Abnormal Return (CAR) as measurement criteria to determine whether the impact of mergers and acquisitions is significant and whether the mergers and acquisitions are successful. The results show that for Siemens Healthineers, the p-value was less than 0.05, and the CAR turned from positive to negative around the announcement date, indicating that the M&A event had a significant impact on Siemens Healthineers, though the transaction was not entirely successful. Conversely, for Varian, the t-test yielded a p-value greater than 0.05, but the CAR shifted from negative to positive, suggesting that the event had no significant statistical impact on Varian. However, the market’s positive reaction indicated that the acquisition was fully successful for Varian.