Strategic Management:

Concepts and Cases 9e

Part II: Strategic Actions:
Strategy Formulation
Chapter 7: Merger and Acquisition
Strategies

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copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole
or in part.
The Strategic Management Process

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Objectives

Studying this chapter should provide you with the strategic

management knowledge needed to:
1. Explain the popularity of merger and acquisition strategies in firms
competing in the global economy.
2. Discuss reasons why firms use an acquisition strategy to achieve
strategic competitiveness.
3. Describe seven problems that work against achieving success
when using an acquisition strategy.
4. Name and describe the attributes of effective acquisitions.
5. Define the restructuring strategy and distinguish among its
common forms.
6. Explain the short- and long-term outcomes of the different types of
restructuring strategies.

©2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter 7: Acquisition and Restructuring
Strategies

• Overview: Six content areas

– Popularity of acquisition strategies for firms competing
in the global economy
– Why firms use acquisition strategies
– Seven problems working against developing a
competitive advantage using an acquisition strategy
– Attributes of effective acquisitions
– Restructuring strategy vs. common forms
– Short & long-term outcomes of different restructuring
strategies

©2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Global Merger and Acquisition (M&A) Activity
During a Global Crisis

• Number of cross-border increased through early

2000s
– Benefits for companies and societies
– Activity tends to be cyclical
– Heavily influenced by external environment
• Tight credit markets
• Political changes in foreign countries’ orientation toward M&A
• Recent declines
– $42 trillion in 2007; $29 trillion in 2008
– First three months of 2009 down 77 percent from same
period in 2008

©2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter 7: Acquisition and Restructuring
Strategies

• Overview: Six content areas

– Popularity of acquisition strategies for firms
competing in the global economy
– Why firms use acquisition strategies
– Seven problems working against developing a
competitive advantage using an acquisition strategy
– Attributes of effective acquisitions
– Restructuring strategy vs common forms
– Short & long-term outcomes of different restructuring
strategies

©2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Introduction:
Popularity of M&A Strategies

• Popular strategy among U.S. firms for many years

• Can be used because of uncertainty in the
competitive landscape
– Increase market power because of competitive threat
– Spread risk due to uncertain environment
– Shift core business into different markets
• Due to industry or regularity changes
• Intent: increase firm’s strategic competitiveness
and value – the reality, however, is returns are
close to zero

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Introduction:
Merger vs. Acquisition vs. Takeover (Cont’d)

• Merger
– Two firms agree to integrate their operations on a
relatively co-equal basis
• Acquisition
– One firm buys a controlling, 100 percent interest in
another firm with the intent of making the acquired
firm a subsidiary business within its portfolio.
• Takeover
– Special type of acquisition strategy wherein the target
firm did not solicit the acquiring firm's bid
– Hostile Takeover: Unfriendly takeover that is
unexpected and undesired by the target firm

©2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter 7: Acquisition and Restructuring
Strategies

• Overview: Six content areas

– Popularity of acquisition strategies for firms competing
in the global economy
– Why firms use acquisition strategies
– Seven problems working against developing a
competitive advantage using an acquisition strategy
– Attributes of effective acquisitions
– Restructuring strategy vs common forms
– Short & long-term outcomes of different restructuring
strategies

©2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Reasons for Acquisitions and Problems in
Achieving Success

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Reasons for Acquisitions
• 1. Increased market power : able to sell its goods or services
above competitive levels or when the costs of its primary or support
activities are lower than those of its competitors and it can become a
market leader
– Sources of market power include
• Size of the firm, resources and capabilities to compete in the
market and share of the market
– Horizontal Acquisitions
• Acquirer and acquired companies compete in the same industry
• McDonald’s acquisition of Boston Market, Aqua yang diakuisisi oleh
Danone
– Vertical Acquisitions
• Firm acquires a supplier or distributor of one or more of its goods
or services; leads to additional controls over parts of the value
chain
• i.e., Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide.
– Related Acquisitions
• Firm acquires another company in a highly related industry, Boeing
recently acquired eXMeritus Inc

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Reasons for Acquisitions (Cont’d)

• 2. Overcoming entry barriers

– Cross-border acquisition: headquarters in different country
– the higher the barriers to market entry, the greater the
probability that a firm will acquire an existing firm
• 3. Cost of new product development and increased speed
to market
– gain access to new products and to current products that are
new to the firm. IBM acquire SPSS
• 4. Lower risk compared to developing new products
– outcomes of an acquisition can be estimated more easily and
accurately
• 5. Increased diversification
– Inhealth Mandiri and Axa Mandiri
• 6. Reshaping firm’s competitive Scope
– To reduce the negative effect of an intense rivalry
• 7. Learning and developing new capabilities
– acquire diverse talent through cross-border acquisitions

©2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter 7: Acquisition and Restructuring
Strategies

• Overview: Six content areas

– Popularity of acquisition strategies for firms competing
in the global economy
– Why firms use acquisition strategies
– Seven problems working against developing a
competitive advantage using an acquisition
strategy
– Attributes of effective acquisitions
– Restructuring strategy vs. common forms
– Short & long-term outcomes of different restructuring
strategies

©2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Problems in Achieving
Acquisition Success

• 1. Integration difficulties
– the post-acquisition integration phase is probably the
single most important determinant of shareholder value
creation, TIPCE
• 2. Inadequate evaluation of target
– In an effective due-diligence process, hundreds of
items are examined in areas of financing, tax,
transaction, cultures, that would successfully meld the
two workforces.
• 3. Large or extraordinary debt
– Junk bonds: financing option whereby risky
acquisitions are financed with money (debt) that
provides a large potential return to lenders
(bondholders) with high interest

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Problems in Achieving
Acquisition Success (Cont’d)

• 4. Inability to achieve synergy

– Synergy: Value created by units exceeds value of units
working independently
• Achieved when the two firms' assets are complementary in
unique ways
• economies of scale and economies of scope and by sharing
resources
– Private synergy: Occurs when the combination and
integration of acquiring and acquired firms' assets
yields capabilities and core competencies that could not
be developed by combining and integrating the assets
with any other company

©2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Problems in Achieving
Acquisition Success (Cont’d)

• 5. Too much diversification

– Diversified firms must process more information of
greater diversity
– Scope created by diversification may cause managers
to rely too much on financial rather than strategic
controls to evaluate performance of business units
– Acquisitions may become substitutes for innovation

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Problems in Achieving
Acquisition Success (Cont’d)

• 6. Managers overly focused on acquisitions

– Necessary activities during acquisition
• Search for viable acquisition candidates
• Complete effective due-diligence processes
• Prepare for negotiations
– Managing the integration process after the acquisition
• Diverts attention from matters necessary for long-term
competitive success (I.e., identifying other activities,
interacting with important external stakeholders, or fixing
fundamental internal problems)
• A short-term perspective and greater risk aversion can result
for target firm's managers

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Problems in Achieving
Acquisition Success (Cont’d)

• 7. Too large
– Bureaucratic controls
• Formalized supervisory and behavioral rules and policies
designed to ensure consistency of decisions and actions
across different units of a firm – formalized controls decrease
flexibility
– Additional costs may exceed the benefits of the
economies of scale and additional market power
– Larger size may lead to more bureaucratic controls
– Formalized controls often lead to relatively rigid and
standardized managerial behavior
– Firm may produce less innovation

©2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter 7: Acquisition and Restructuring
Strategies

• Overview: Six content areas

– Popularity of acquisition strategies for firms competing
in the global economy
– Why firms use acquisition strategies
– Seven problems working against developing a
competitive advantage using an acquisition strategy
– Attributes of effective acquisitions
– Restructuring strategy vs. common forms
– Short & long-term outcomes of different restructuring
strategies

©2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Effective Acquisitions
• Complementary assets or resources
• Friendly acquisitions facilitate integration of firms
• Effective due-diligence process (assessment of
target firm by acquirer, such as books, culture,
etc.)
• Financial slack
• Low debt position
– High debt can…
• Increase the likelihood of bankruptcy
• Lead to a downgrade in the firm’s credit rating
• Preclude needed investment in activities that contribute to the
firm’s long-term success
• Innovation
• Flexibility and adaptability
©2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Effective Acquisitions – IBM SPSS

©2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter 7: Acquisition and Restructuring
Strategies

• Overview: Six content areas

– Popularity of acquisition strategies for firms competing
in the global economy
– Why firms use acquisition strategies
– Seven problems working against developing a
competitive advantage using an acquisition strategy
– Attributes of effective acquisitions
– Restructuring strategy vs. common forms
– Short & long-term outcomes of different
restructuring strategies

©2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Restructuring

• Restructuring defined: Firm changes set of

businesses or financial structure
• Three restructuring strategies
– 1. Downsizing
• Reduction in number of firms’ employees (and possibly
number of operating units) that may or may not change the
composition of businesses in the company's portfolio
– 2. Downscoping
• Eliminating businesses unrelated to firms’ core businesses
through divesture, spin-off, or some other means

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Restructuring (Cont’d)

• Three restructuring strategies (Cont’d)

– 3. Leveraged buyouts (LBOs) –

• One party buys all of a firm's assets in order to take the firm
private (or no longer trade the firm's shares publicly)
• Private equity firm: Firm that facilitates or engages in taking
a public firm private
• Three types of LBOs
– Management buyouts
– Employee buyouts
– Whole-firm buyouts
• Why LBOs?
– Protection against a capricious financial market
– Allows owners to focus on developing innovations/bring them to
market
– A form of firm rebirth to facilitate entrepreneurial efforts

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Restructuring

• Restructuring Outcomes
– Short-term
• Reduced costs: labor and debt
• Emphasis on strategic controls
– Long-term
• Loss of human capital
• Performance: higher/lower
• Higher risk

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Restructuring and Outcomes

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