| Abstract : | Many studies have been made for accrual-based earnings management in a merger and acquisition but the results vary and sometimes the surveys oppose one another. Our survey tries to demonstrate if the non-financial firms that have publicly announced their intention to be acquired, within 1992 and 2009, manipulate their financial reports the two years preceding the seeking buyer announcement until the year after it. Acquiring firms have enough time to use earnings management but what about target firms? The survey concentrates on five countries, U.K., France, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. The results show that in a few countries there is strong evidence that target firms use downwards earnings management and in one country there is no evidence at all. Comparison among the countries is inevitable despite the different environment (economic, legal, etc.) that the firms operate in each country. In addition, most of the firms are acquired within the first two years after the seeking buyer announcement. It is found that countries using accounting manipulation more than others do not obtain larger percentage of acquisitions per seeking buyer announcements. Consequently, earnings quality plays important role in the completion of the deal.
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