Taşseven, Özlem (Dogus Author) -- Conference full title: Proceedings of Peer-Reviewed Symposium 2010, Annual Symposium fo the Financial Services Institute, September 9-11, 2010, St John's University, New York, USA.This is a comparative study of the 14 Istanbul Stock Exchange registered mergers and acquisitions (M&As) that took place between 2000 and 2007. In our analysis, we have compared 30 different financial ratios to identify the impact of the M&As before and after the acquisition. Employing the factor analysis methodology, we grouped those financial ratios into four distinct groups. These groups were identified as liquidity, profitability, operational and financial ratios. During the second phase of our analysis, by looking at those factors before and after an M&A transaction, we tried to identify whether there were any significant changes in the financial structures after an M&A. The Wilcoxon tests indicated that there were no significant changes in the financial structure before and after an M&A for the firms in hand. During the next phase of our analysis, we tried to identify the firms that are significantly different from the industry average. In other words, in which aspects the firms that were the subject of an M&A differed from the rest of the industry. We found out some 9 firms differed with respect to profitability, six firms differed with respect to liquidity, six firms differed with respect to financial, and 7 firms differed with respect to operational aspects
