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3.4.6: Mergers and Acquisitions

  • Page ID
    58809
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    Learning Objective

    1. Define mergers and acquisitions, and explain why companies are motivated to merge or acquire other companies.

    The headline read, “Wanted: More than 2,000 in Google Hiring Spree” (Oreskovic, 2011; The Official Google Blog, 2011). The largest Web search engine in the world was disclosing its plans to grow internally and increase its workforce by more than 2,000 people, with half of the hires coming from the United States and the other half coming from other countries. The added employees will help the company expand into new markets and battle for global talent in the competitive Internet information providers industry. When properly executed, internal growth benefits the firm.

    An alternative approach to growth is to merge with or acquire another company. The rationale behind growth through merger or acquisition is that 1 + 1 = 3: the combined company is more valuable than the sum of the two separate companies. This rationale is attractive to companies facing competitive pressures. To grab a bigger share of the market and improve profitability, companies will want to become more cost efficient by combining with other companies.


    3.4.6: Mergers and Acquisitions is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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