Emeritus Professor of Financial Accounting
Honorary Senior Research Associate and Fellow (Visiting), Cambridge Centre for Finance (CCFin)
Honorary Senior Research Associate and Fellow (Visiting), Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance (CERF)
BA (University of Cambridge), PhD (University of Edinburgh)
My research interests include misleading accounting by companies and corporate restructuring by merger and by bankruptcy. I’ve previously worked at Price Waterhouse, the University of Edinburgh, and the Faculty of Economics at Cambridge. I’ve held visiting positions at Harvard Business School, INSEAD and London School of Economics; and been Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge and Academic Fellow of ICAEW. At CJBS I’ve been Director of Teaching, Director of Research, Head of the Finance and Accounting Group, and Acting Dean.
I’m a member of the Finance subject group at Cambridge Judge.
Professional experience
Geoff Meeks joined Cambridge Judge Business School in 2003, having previously been employed by Price Waterhouse, the University of Edinburgh and the Faculty of Economics at Cambridge. He has held visiting positions at Harvard Business School, INSEAD and London School of Economics. At Cambridge Judge he has served as Director of Teaching, Head of the Finance & Accounting Group, and Acting Director (2010-2011). He is a member of the Cambridge Corporate Governance Network (CCGN).
Selected publications
- Meeks, G. and Meeks, J.G. (2022) The merger mystery: why spend so much on mergers when so many fail? Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers (DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0309) (available online for free from Open Books Publishers)
- Meeks, G. and Whittington, G. (2023) “Death on the stock exchange: the fate of the 1948 population of large UK quoted companies, 1948-2018.” Business History, 65(4): 679-698 (DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2021.1893696)
- Amel-Zadeh, A. and Meeks, G. (eds.) (2020) Accounting for M&A: uses and abuses of accounting in monitoring and promoting merger. Abingdon: Routledge.
- Amel-Zadeh, A. and Meeks, G. (2019) “Bidder earnings forecasts in mergers and acquisitions.” Journal of Corporate Finance, 58(C): 373-392 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2019.06.002)
- Botsari, A. and Meeks, G. (2018) “Acquirers’ earnings management ahead of stock-for-stock bids in ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ markets.” Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 37: 355-375 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2018.09.007)
- Meeks, G. (1977) Disappointing marriage: a study of the gains from merger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Geoff Meeks challenges proposals to undermine, or withdraw from International Financial Reporting Standards. Read the technical note, Undermining financial regulation.
For Professor Meeks’ most recent research, please visit the Social Science Research Network.
News and insights
Insight
Top 10 reads of 2022
The News and Insight section of Cambridge Judge Business School’s website seeks a broad range of topics of interest to diverse audiences. In 2022, attention was focused on articles ranging from paedophile stings to Bitcoin, and from how edible insects promote sustainability to a Ukrainian finding tranquility in Cambridge.
Mergers are constructed by talented executives, lawyers, bankers and advisers, yet most deals fail. A new book The Merger Mystery, co-authored by Geoff Meeks of Cambridge Judge Business School, outlines the reasons why.
Global strategy and international business
GE’s grip on airlines
The breakup of General Electric shines a spotlight on GE’s once-dominant role in the airline industry through aircraft leasing, engines and financing, says a new study co-authored at Cambridge Judge Business School that examines “Why do unsuccessful companies survive?”
Media coverage
The Economist | 24 August 2022
Blasted are the dealmakers
A study co-authored by Geoff Meeks, Emeritus Professor of Financial Accounting at Cambridge Judge Business School, and J Gay Meeks, Senior Research Associate in the Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge, is mentioned in this article about firms’ unwise addiction to mergers and acquisitions.
The research estimates that only a fifth of studies conclude that the average deal produces higher combined profits or increases the wealth of the acquirer’s shareholders, the article says.
Financial Times | 20 July 2022
Mergers destroy value. Without reform, nothing will change
Geoff Meeks, Emeritus Professor of Financial Accounting at Cambridge Judge Business School, and J Gay Meeks, Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge Centre of Development Studies, write about mergers and acquisitions.
It’s an often-quoted statistic that roughly 70% of mergers fail. Yet despite the weight of evidence, vast and ever-increasing sums are spent on mergers and acquisitions — around $5tn globally in 2021 — and on some measures the number of deals has seen a 40-fold increase in 40 years, the article says.
Financial Times | 14 June 2021
Adaptable managers help companies pull through
A study on UK companies’ survival rate co-authored by Geoff Meeks and Geoffrey Whittington featured in the Financial Times. The study, inspired by natural selection theory, finds that only 19 of 1,513 UK companies (1.26%) survived over the biblical “threescore years and ten” (70 years) from the postwar Companies Act in 1948 which made consolidated accounts mandatory.
LSE blog, 3 September 2018
Ten years from the crash: Time to row back on financial regulation and compliance?
LSE, 19 January 2017
Engineering financial distress: Transplanting banking techniques to the NHS?
The Independent, 27 May 2015
Banks may complain but they have it pretty good
The Daily Telegraph, 26 May 2015
Banks’ profits recover but they are paying less in corporation tax
The New York Times, 26 May 2015
UK corporation tax take from banks slumps despite profit rebound – study
Cambridge Network, 5 November 2014
Cambridge Judge academics scoop best paper award