IMPACT OF FINANCIAL COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS PERFORMANCES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE MICROSOFT – SKYPE ACQUISITION CASE

Abstract

Financial communication is a new science, which mixes the concepts related to the finance and marketing area. Is this new discipline so necessary in the enterprise’s world? Is this subject able to influence and determinate different business performances? Is this communication a fundamental aspect of value creation, leading to an improvement of revenues, a reduction of costs, a huge issuing of company’s shares, an enhancing stock price? In this research thesis the relationship between the disclosure with the operational and market results will be examined firstly by analyzing a case study of firms involved in a circumstance of mergers and acquisitions and secondly by trying to identify positive or negative correlations between financial communication and performances. The work, which is structured through a deep analysis of financial disclosure interactions and implications in the Microsoft-Skype acquisition case happened in 2011, evidences congruencies with qualitative and operational results, while the outcomes of the market analysis are fluctuating. The aim of the research paper is trying to solve the quest for improving business performances related to financial disclosure in M&A contexts, which has not been much covered from the perspective of corporate and market implications, but which is essential to fill the gaps in non-optimal situations of the firm.