On average M&A and Diversification leads to mostly bad outcomes....

On average M&A and Diversification leads to mostly bad outcomes. The Board hiring advisers (who are incentivised to push through M&A bc that is how they get their fees) is surely not a good sign. The SP apparently also doesnt like it.

M&A for its own sake and because shareholders are crying for it, is stupid. Worst case, you get worse SP performance(nobody can predict that, not a great performance metric) and worse business performance and worse return for shareholders in the form of dividends or buybacks.

Anyway the worst time to do M&A etc. is when you are under pressure or incentivized to do it and make it work. Please everyone learn about the human biases and how it leads to bad outcomes by the great Charlie Munger: https://fs.blog/great-talks/psychology-human-misjudgment/.

A good deal that increases shareholder returns through improved business profits with low risk, I am of course not against it but I am doubtful that they can achieve that.