Why do companies not disclose the deal value in an M&A transaction?

Disclosed the Undisclosed: The curious case of undisclosed deal values
70% of the deals do not disclose their valuation terms
Ever thought, Why?
1. Acquirers do not want to divulge critical market sizing information to their competitors. Deal values and a general sense of industry multiples can be used in back-calculating a rough estimate of market potential
2. Acquirers might not consider the deal value material
3. Disclosing deal values is not mandated by law. In general, companies do not disclose what they don’t have to
4. Acquirers will want to avoid the stickiness arising from paying in a similar way to future prospects, especially when the value included a sweetener or was negotiated on target-friendly terms
5. Avoiding ‘buyer or seller remorse’ in case of overpayment or underpayment respectively

Understand that a deal value not being disclosed in the press release does not imply any disclosure at all. In some cases, it might be buried in a proxy or legal filings and might require a bit of scavenging

Maybe in the future, we can expect some regulation that makes it mandatory to disclose deal values above a lesser threshold, to improve transparency. Until then, keep digging