Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) assist public accounting firms in multiple ways. These transactions expand client services, open opportunities consulting wealth management, increase revenues, secure talented personnel. This exploratory study looks to build a preliminary model surrounding the likelihood firm participates an M&A transaction. To do so, sample of top 100 firms, as reported b...

Why is a portfolio sometimes valued less than the sum of its underlying components? In this paper, I provide a novel explanation for this question by utilizing closed-end funds, mergers and acquisitions, and conglomerates, where the value of the aggregate portfolio and the values of the underlying components can be separately evaluated. Inspired by the model of Barberis and Huang (2008), in whi...