I'm trying to merge two datasets on Mergers & Acquisitions. They both consist of c.10'000 observations with c.50-100 variables each. One contains information about the actual M&A deal whereas the other one contains info on how a deal was financed.The problem is that there is no clear and unique identifier. For example, I could use the date that the deal was announced but that wouldn't be unique because on some days 10 deals were announced. Using company names is difficult since they mostly aren't identical in both datasets. For example if in one dataset I find Ebay, in the other the same company could be called eBay, Ebay Inc, or Ebay, Inc.I've been working with the Fuzzy Lookup add-on for Excel, as well as concacenating various identifiers that are not unique but in their combination become useful (e.g. Date & Country & SIC Industry Classification Code, etc.). However I haven't been able to generate as many matches as I would have hoped.I'd be grateful for any ideas or pointers towards resources that would help me merge the datasets more efficiently.
Merging two datasets with unclear identifier in Excel
databases