strategy·Published 2026-01
Frequency of 'Synergy' in M&A Press Release Language and Subsequent Integration Difficulty: A Positive Correlation
Principal investigator: Dr. Percival Ashcombe, Chief Research Officer.
Merger and acquisition announcements that use 'synergy' more frequently are followed by more difficult integrations, as measured by the Institute's Post-Merger Friction Index.
Methodology
Two hundred and twenty-one merger and acquisition announcements from the period 2018 through 2023 were identified from public filings. The occurrence of 'synergy,' 'synergies,' 'synergistic,' and 'synergize' in the primary press release was tallied for each transaction. Eighteen months following the transaction close date, the Institute administered its Post-Merger Friction Index to employees at three organizational levels (executive, middle management, and individual contributor) at the acquiring organization, averaging scores across respondents. Organizations where fewer than ten employees completed the survey were excluded from the final analysis.
Funding disclosure: Funded by a private equity firm that requested anonymity and asked that the study not be published until after the close of one of its portfolio transactions, a request the Institute honored.
Instruments cited in this study
Full citation
Ashcombe, P. (2026). Frequency of 'Synergy' in M&A Press Release Language and Subsequent Integration Difficulty: A Positive Correlation. Institute for the Study of Pointless Metrics. r = 0.84, p < 0.001, n = 221.