Determining the value/ share price of the combined company in acquisition

Dear sir, I would like to ask about the method of determining the share price of the combined company in the case of a merger/ acquisition. I'm referring to Q1 (ii) June 2012 and Q3 (a) Dec 2012, in the case of share for share exchange In Q1(ii) Jun. 2012, the share price is calculated as (Earnings of combined company/ no. of shares of combined company) x P/E In Dec 2012, the examiner answer using share price = Total equity value of combined company/ number of combined shares I understand both these method make sense, but my question is how do we decide which method to use in the exam? Because I tried to apply both method and the result is different! For example, Q1(ii) June According to examiner answer: Earnings of combined company: 620,000 + 150,000 + 3,200,000 = 3.97m Shares in combined company: 11.6m EPS = 34.2c/ share Share price = 34.2 x 15 (P/E) = 513c While applying the approach used in Dec 12, I've calculate like this: Equity value of the combined companies: Mije: 10m shares x $ 4.8 = 48m Nente: 2.4m shares x $2.9 = 6.96m Cost synergies: 0.15m => Total equity value = 55.11m No of combined shares: 11.6m => share price = 475c Which is different from the above method. Same thing, if I apply the earning based method like in June to solve Dec 12 question, the answer is also different from the examiner answer. It is very confusing which method to use now. Thank you for your help!