Success of International M&As: The case of adidas'

acquisition of Reebok
David Rygl, M Kittler & Tobias Dennerlein
This case study describes how adidas, one of the biggest companies in the
sporting goods industry, managed the process of acquiring Reebok and how it
deals with the on-going post-merger-integration. In the last few decades,
mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have gained in strategic importance as a
means of external company growth. Given the high economical impact of the
increasing number and volume of transactions, it is alarming that more than
50% of all analysed transactions failed or did not lead to their expected results.
The failure of most acquisitions may be the result of a number of factors. In
this case two problems associated with the integration process itself are
identified: (1) there is evidence that human (eg, cultural) factors are seldom
recognised as part of the problem, as top managers are mainly concerned with
the financial and strategic aspects of a merger; and (2) the little attention that
is paid to the soft aspects of the transition, such as human resource issues (eg,
intercultural training) and the development of a new company culture. In this
case study several management efforts can be identified that were
implemented by the management in order to make things better during the
integration process with Reebok.
keywords
type
date of appearance
publisher
review

Mergers and acquisitions, M&A, Reebok, Adidas,

Post-merger process, Corporate culture
case study (English)
2007
ecch
external review

research platform Alexandria

https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch | 04.05.2015