FIN 423 Quiz #5

Take-home Assignment, Due in class on May 21, 1997

Write a brief answer to the following questions in a short, neat, concise report of less than three typed pages (1" margins, 11 point fonts, or larger). This is an individual assignment. If you collaborate, you risk failing the entire course. There are files containing background information on the Ahmanson-Great Western-Washington Mutual takeover fight that is currently underway on the course home page. You should use that information and anything else you can learn about this case to answer these questions.

(10 points)

  1. Why is Ahmanson (AHM) seeking to gain control of Great Western (GWF)? What synergies, if any, would result from this merger?

  2. Why does Washington Mutual (WAMU) want to acquire Great Western? What synergies if any, would result from this merger?

  3. Are there any regulatory or antitrust issues involved in this case? If so, what are they?

  4. Comment on the stock market reaction to the offers by Ahmanson and Washington Mutual.

  5. Comment on the tactics used by Ahmanson, Great Western, and Washington Mutual thus far. What do you forecast to be the eventual outcome? Why?

A file containing information from Dow Jones News Retrieval is available here.

An Excel spreadsheet containing daily stock prices for Ahmanson (AHM), Great Western (GWF), and Washington Mutual (WAMU), as well as the Dow Jones Industrial Average is available here in self-extracting ZIP format.

Click here to see the behavior of Great Western (GWF) stock prices. Use the BACK button to return to this page.

Click here to see the behavior of Ahmanson (AHM) stock prices. Use the BACK button to return to this page.

Click here to see the behavior of Washington Mutual (WAMU) stock prices. Use the BACK button to return to this page.

Click here to see Great Western's (GWF) accounting performance. Use the BACK button to return to this page.

Click here to see the behavior of Ahmanson's (AHM) accounting performance. Use the BACK button to return to this page.

Click here to see the behavior of Washington Mutual's (WAMU) accounting performance. Use the BACK button to return to this page.

A full-text version of this quiz is available in Acrobat's portable data format (.pdf). The file is about 111K and can only be viewed (and printed) using a copy of Acrobat Reader.

If you do not have a copy of this program, you may download a program that works for Windows 95 or NT now [this is a self-extracting ZIP file that you must install on your computer to read PDF files]. If you want the current version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader for other platforms, visit Adobe's web page.

Click here to download this quiz.

Click here to see the histogram showing the grades for this quiz.

A histogram showing the grades for this quiz is available in Acrobat's portable data format (.pdf). The file is about 35K and can only be viewed (and printed) using a copy of Acrobat Reader.

Click here to download this graph.

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Last Updated on 5/14/97

© Copyright 1997, G. William Schwert