The information sources available to us to give the details of a companies financials and in particular the details to do with an acquisition vary in the accuracy and reliability At the top, we have regulatory filings and primary sources of information i.e from the company itself So regulatory filings, financial statements and company presentations and press releases can be relied upon to be accurate M&A databases have had all the work done for us by someone else but may include some inaccuracies Equity research is another important source of information but again we do have to rely on someone else's work And at the bottom of the list is press analysis. This can be often be filled with inaccuracies and should be treated carefully In terms of actual information sources available to us. In the U.S we have a form 8-K This give details of any material event within a business and will include a significant acquisition But could also involve a change of director, change of major shareholding A 14 D-1 and 14 D-9 look at offer to shareholders and then responses A form S-4 details a securities issuance in connection with an acquisition And that has an awful lot of detail available in it And a 10-K and 10-Q looks at an annual report or quarterly report To look at some other information sources outside the U.S In the U.K you have the takeover panel, that's your regulator regarding mergers and acquisitions And then you have two different schemes, an offer document and a scheme of arrangement An offer document is an offer to shareholders in the public market and it goes around a target company's management or board A scheme of arrangement is where a bidder works with the target's board and goes through the courts To try an convince the target shareholders to agree to the takeover An offer document (from a tender offer) is a hostile bid, a scheme of arrangement is more likely a friendly bid Lastly, you the company's own financial statements available in their annual an interim report