Economic Determinants And Effects Of International Mergers

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 1,7, University of Kent (Kent Business School), language: English, abstract: The history of mankind is marked by the striving of a person to surpass oneself. In the early days growth was mainly achieved by enlarging the own family, and during the times of sedentarisation growth was achieved by claiming more areas of arable land. These two human characteristics have survived to the present day and have been transferred into modern world economy - on the one hand striving for more and on the other hand the increase of own power or influence. Nowadays those men are called entrepreneurs, and they take care of these things in the economic world through Mergers and Acquisitions. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that this kind of enterprise growth has found more and more approval in the course of the last years. It is easy to recognize that development by comparing the impressively increasing transaction volumes. That this trend will obviously continue has been confirmed by one of the most recent surveys conducted by the Boston Consulting Group (Kronimus et al., 2009). According to the survey every fifth company in Europe plans an acquisition in the year 2010 - in spite of the continuing economic crisis. These figures look impressive, but if one gets deeper into the subject, one realises that almost 70% of these mergers do not achieve the intended objectives (Palmer, n.d.), or are even regarded as a complete failure (Habeck et al., 2000). Remarkable is the fact that there are even unsuccessful mergers involving financially sound companies. Therefore, it can be concluded that the success of a merger or a takeover not only depends on the financial evaluation of the involved organisations but rather that there must be other factors which play a significant role. These other factors will be identified in this paper and their importance will be critically discussed.

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 8,5, Erasmus University Rotterdam (Rotterdam School of Management), language: English, abstract: While the influences of macro-level determinants on cross-border transactions have been investigated in several studies before, firm-level determinants have mostly been excluded in those studies. This study finds that firm-level determinants have a substantial influence on the probability a firm’s decision to acquire a company in a foreign country. The result is even more pronounced in transactions where the acquirer’s and the target’s business operations are related to each other. In unrelated transactions, it was found that acquirers are more influenced by domestic and foreign stock market valuations as well as the relative value of their currency. This seems to proof the fire-sale theory as well as the risk reduction through diversification theory. It is concluded that unrelated transactions are more opportunistic, while related transactions are based on firm-specific business strategic reasons. A firm’s amount of excess cash has been included as a firm-level determinant into the probit model of this study. This variable is fairly new to this kind of studies and its results offer deeper insights into the relationship between transaction probability, determinants and relatedness. This study extents the existing body of academic literature on cross-border mergers and acquisitions by investigating firm- as well as macro-level determinants, while simultaneously taking the relatedness between the transaction parties into account. In order to verify the results, further research into this area is strongly encouraged.

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 1,7, University of Kent (Kent Business School), language: English, abstract: The history of mankind is marked by the striving of a person to surpass oneself. In the early days growth was mainly achieved by enlarging the own family, and during the times of sedentarisation growth was achieved by claiming more areas of arable land. These two human characteristics have survived to the present day and have been transferred into modern world economy – on the one hand striving for more and on the other hand the increase of own power or influence. Nowadays those men are called entrepreneurs, and they take care of these things in the economic world through Mergers and Acquisitions. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that this kind of enterprise growth has found more and more approval in the course of the last years. It is easy to recognize that development by comparing the impressively increasing transaction volumes. That this trend will obviously continue has been confirmed by one of the most recent surveys conducted by the Boston Consulting Group (Kronimus et al., 2009). According to the survey every fifth company in Europe plans an acquisition in the year 2010 – in spite of the continuing economic crisis. These figures look impressive, but if one gets deeper into the subject, one realises that almost 70% of these mergers do not achieve the intended objectives (Palmer, n.d.), or are even regarded as a complete failure (Habeck et al., 2000). Remarkable is the fact that there are even unsuccessful mergers involving financially sound companies. Therefore, it can be concluded that the success of a merger or a takeover not only depends on the financial evaluation of the involved organisations but rather that there must be other factors which play a significant role. These other factors will be identified in this paper and their importance will be critically discussed.

This title enriches both areas of research, finance and international management to analyze the choice of location and value creation in mergers and acquisitions. Our research answers the following question: What are the determinants of the location and value creation in mergers and acquisitions?

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 2.0, New College Durham, course: Strategic Business Management, language: English, abstract: In today’s economy of globalization, technological change, an increase in innovation and shorter product life cycles have led to intensified international competition. The result is an increase in productivity and capital requirements due to high R&D and growing quality costs. Cross-border mergers have become a predominant form of global expansion and a common possibility of adapting to changing market conditions (Buchner, 2002, p. 21). As the described economic development will continue and may become even stronger, the requirement for cross-border mergers exists (Gösche, 1991, p. 153). However, statistics show that the failure rate has been quite high (see p.13, 2.3). The author will investigate critical success factors, that are often neglected and the main cause of failure. By failure the author does not mean a complete failure, but that the merged company has not achieved its expected goals. Based on preliminary research and existing knowledge, the analysis of critical success factors will mainly refer to soft factors. In cross-border mergers cultural issues in the form of organizational and national culture play an important role (Gertsen et al., Cultural Dimensions in International Mergers and Acquisitions, 1998). Furthermore, the author will focus on change management, as mergers bring along major changes that have enormous impact on managers and employees. In this context the effect of knowledge management and communication will also be analysed (Buchner, Der Mensch im Merger, 2002). As these issues will have to be considered at certain stages within the merging process, emphasis will also be laid on due diligence and the integration process (Galpin & Herndon, The Complete Guide to Mergers and Acquisitons, 2000).