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Katherine Simeon Bruere is a Ph.D. student in the Leventhal School of Accounting. She is interested in empirical financial and audit research, specifically M&A, goodwill and intangible assets, the PCAOB, and going-concern assessments. Prior to starting the Ph.D. program, Katherine worked at Ernst & Young as an auditor in Dallas’ Financial Services division, as well as an accountant at Merit Energy. Katherine earned a BA and an MA in Accounting at Baylor University (2014) and is a licensed CPA in the state of Texas.
RESEARCH + PUBLICATIONS
We examine M&A advisors’ use of historical vs. forecasted performance measures in the valuation multiples they provide to directors and shareholders. Forward multiples are more relevant for valuation, and predominant in other valuation-advisory settings. But M&A advisors rarely use them. We seek to explain this choice. Building on DeAngelo (1990), we hypothesize and find that advisors are more likely to use historical measures in more contentious transactions, with higher perceived conflicts of interest and scrutiny. When control and valuation are contentious, they appeal to reported summary accounting measures as ‘arbiters’ for valuation. This use case for accounting has implications for frameworks in accounting research and standards.