Mergers and acquisitions

AT&T’s recently announced acquisition of T-Mobile will invite hellfire from telecom regulators who fantasize over a different market structure, in which 17 mom-and-pop carriers serve the masses with tender love and care. As an economist, and as a customer of AT&T (with my mom, wife, and oldest daughter on my account), I am not so […]

Less than a decade after the frantic merger activity of the late 1960s, we are again in the midst of a major wave of corporate acquisitions. In contrast to the 1960s, when acquirers were mainly freewheeling conglomerates, the merger movement in the 1970s includes such long-established giants of U.S. industry as General Electric, Gulf Oil, […]

Pharma giant Pfizer recently announced a $350 million partnership with Biocon, one of Asia’s leading biotechnology companies. The deal gives Pfizer the exclusive rights to commercialize Biocon’s biosimilar versions of insulin. (For full disclosure: Dr. Prasad Kaipa, one of the authors, headed up the Biocon Cell for Innovation Management at the Indian School of Business […]

A case study of IBM in the 1990s points to what Dell must do to succeed.

Most companies default to the same approach for executing each new strategy. Here’s a framework for your journey.

People issues can make or break a deal.

Dropbox is the simple file syncing service that has grown, in just a few years, to 50 million active users. 96% of those users do not give a cent to Dropbox....

Because our attention is a limited resource.

The $4 billion offer by the Disney Company to purchase Marvel Entertainment, Inc. is the apotheosis of an escape from disaster to rival even the most hair-raising Spiderman adventures. When the world leader in comic books, a dying medium, entered bankruptcy in 1996, only a few visionary loyalists saw a viable future — let alone […]

For three decades, executives have made maximizing shareholder value their top priority. But evidence suggests that shareholders actually do better when firms put the customer first.

Many high-tech companies looking for hot new products have caught acquisition fever. Smart buyers keep their eye on building the right long-term capabilities, which often means keeping the right people.

Valuation used to be the province of finance specialists. That’s no longer true.

Whatever you think of Carly Fiorina’s management style, she is a shrewd tactician. In the acrimonious proxy battle surrounding the 2002 Hewlett-Packard–Compaq merger, the promerger group, headed by the former HP CEO, squeaked by the antimerger dissidents with less than a 1% margin. But before Fiorina’s side could claim victory, the dissidents brought suit, accusing […]

Shareholders, who are the most important constituency of the modern corporation because they bear its residual risk, benefit most directly from acquisitions...

By tapping former employees, companies can get a jump on the all-important integration process.

An increasingly popular route to success as a small business owner is "acquisition entrepreneurship"--buying and running an existing operation. If you're...

They have distinct but complementary skills.

When it comes to improving business performance, managers have no shortage of tools and techniques from which to choose. But what really works? What's...

Three questions to guide your communication strategy.

A global hotel company that has just completed a large merger is debating whether to retain all the brands that came with the acquisition. The company...