BHS boss takes over merger’s success rate: British entrepreneur puts his money where his mouth is

While Philip Green was celebrating his £5m birthday bash in the sun last year, rival shareholders and CEOs were bashing their heads against brick walls. Though every company the British entrepreneur touches (most recently Arcadia that he bought for £850m) seems to turn to gold dust, the majority of takeover deals do not pay off. Mergers are still business, with almost $4 trillion changing hands between 1998 and 2002, but results often are disappointing. So what does Philip Green know that perhaps the rest of us do not?