‘To invite disappointment or worse’: governance, audit and due diligence in the Ferranti–ISC merger
分析了英国电子集团Ferranti在1987年与美国ISC合并后于1993年倒闭的案例，质疑英国公司治理机制能否有效约束强势个人的错误决策。
Mergers and acquisitions frequently destroy shareholder value, and UK companies have a particularly poor record in US deals. But outcomes are rarely as calamitous as in the case of the British electronics group Ferranti which in 1987 entered into a significant merger with the US company International Signal and Control Group (ISC). The combined group had collapsed by 1993. Our analysis of the case, seen in the light of more recent corporate failures such as the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), leads us to question whether the UK’s ‘idiosyncratic mix’ of corporate governance mechanisms can ever effectively constrain the flawed and dictatorial decision-making of dominant individuals.