How can acquisitions help improve a firm's competitive position and lead to value creation? * Why do many acquisitions fail to live up to expectations? * Why do many managers think that integration means "make the other firms like us," rather than build on the complementary elements that were the original justification for the acquisition? * How can a management team improve its success with acquisitions? * How and what can firms learn from their acquisition experience? These persistent questions are addressed in this important book by Philippe Haspeslagh and David Jemison. Though much has been written about hostile takeovers, megamergers, and corporate restructuring, little attention has been paid to strategic acquisitions that firms throughout the world are using to accelerate the renewal of their business. After eight years of research in 20 companies in the United States, Europe, and Japan, Haspeslagh and Jemison offer a welcome antidote to an overly financial view of acquisitions. Real value, they show, is created only after the agreement is signed -- through managerial actions, not financial engineering. Against their innovative theory of how acquisitions create value, the authors examine the reality of acquisition decision making in most firms. Ironically, they point out, less effective acquisition decision making does not stem from a lack of analysis, but from problems in the acquisition process itself. The importance of their message manage the acquisition process -- becomes more vivid when Haspeslagh and Jemison address integration, identifying common problems and challenges. In addition, they offer a powerful framework for managers to think through their integration approach.

Finally! A comprehensive volume on the management of corporate acquisitions that summarizes contemporary research, and that moves what we know about acquisition management a step further. The book encompasses innovative works from several countries, related to a variety of issues; managerial motives, the role of acquisitions in competitive strategy, as well as organizational and political processes. Unlike several other works on acquisitions, this book emphasizes the most critical issue faced by managers today; how to manage successfully already acquired companies and operations. Both researchers, managers and students of strategy and organization will find this book an important supplement.

Mergers, acquisitions, and alliances continue to be almost an everyday feature of the contemporary business scene, yet at least half prove to be unsuccessful. The authors show the contribution that psychology can make to our understanding of the merger phenomena - how it affects organizational performance, and how it affects the managers and employees involved. Mergers, Acquisitions and Strategic Alliances is intended as a guide to successful organizational marriage. Great emphasis is placed on the issue of cultural compatibility as it concerns partner selection, integration practices and venture outcomes. The book also focuses on cross-national mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. With the increasing economic activity within the European Union and between the unions of other countries, there is a need to know more about the corporate and national cultures in these strategic alliances. The authors have drawn upon an extensive body of research based on recent cases in a wide cross section of industries across Europe. The book is unique in showing the actual effect mergers and acquisitions have on people, and consequently on the performance of the 'new' organization. It will be particularly relevant for decision makers - those who are involved in planning and implementing a large organizational change, and those responsible for ensuring successful integration afterwards. It would also be extremely useful for postgraduate management students, personnel executives and management consultants.

This book examines the dynamics of the sociocultural processes inherent in mergers and acquisitions, and draws implications for post-merger integration management.

Financials alone don't make an M&A deal work. Equally important is what's behind them--an organization's people. How to understand this reality and benefit from it is the thrust of this unusually comprehensive, practical, readable, but conceptually rigorous book. Daniel and Metcalf see HR executives as change agents during the delicate maneuverings before a deal is done, and then after, when it's time to tackle the fine-grained problems of integrating disparate corporate cultures and the people who vitalize them. They examine the recent and ongoing waves of mergers and acquisitions across industries, setting them in the broader context of organizational change. With concepts, theory, and real-life examples drawn from their long, impressive experience as consultants and executives, Daniel and Metcalf provide step-by-step guidance through the stages common to all corporate combinations. They define and explain the roles to be played in the process by HR professionals and executives elsewhere in the organization, and show how, by interacting productively with each other, they will thus maximize the total contribution to the success of any corporate transaction.

"The Management of Mergers and Acquisitions is far away from the perfect, polished presentations of the merchant bankers in which value creation is all too often just the result of a well-executed PowerPoint presentation. Philippe Very takes us into the real world where management is the key word - management of the expected and the unexpected, of rationality and emotions, of processes and people. He combines the expertise of the researcher with live business cases. This makes his book extremely easy and enjoyable to read and at the same time builds the knowledge and the understanding of the reader quickly and effectively. A perfect vade mecum that every stakeholder in a merger and acquisition should read: bankers, consultants, buyers, sellers, CEO’s and management." Richard Simonin, Chief Executive Officer, Harrods Ltd "Having worked with Philippe on a number of research projects, I have the highest respect for his abilities, motivation, and character. What he writes, I want to read." Mike Lubatkin, Professor of Management and Wolf Family Chair in Strategic Entrepreneurship, University of Connecticut, Professor of Management at EM Lyon "Philippe Very delivers a detailed guide to the entire merger and acquisition process – from identifying a target to completing the integration phase. His highly original style, combines cliffhanger fictional stories with authoritative research results. Both M&A professionals and business students will take away a deeper understanding of the M&A process along with action points based on real-life problems." Dr Stephen Gates, Principal Researcher, The Conference Board "At last, a lively and entertaining management book. With little or no business experience, the case studies will give you a feel for the complexity of M&A situations. With more experience, you will quickly identify with challenges that you have faced yourself. In all cases, however good your planning and anticipation skills, expect to face the unknown. You are dealing with organizations and people: each one has expectations, frustrations, and an ego." Eric Bonnot, CEO, Audax – Basic System

This eye-opening study, based on the authors' direct and personal observation of a bank merger, has three basic analytical focuses: the human issues presented by mergers at both an individual and a cultural level, the organizational issues that these human concerns raise, and the resulting implications for managing the merger and acquisition process. With keen insight the authors delve into a complex web of reactions. The intrigues, cultural clashes, hostilities, and tensions that emerged from this friendly merger are mind-boggling. The dynamics that characterized the dual nature of the merger run the gamut of human responses to a stressful situation: trust and betrayal, openness and deception, hope and despair, support and retaliation - all driven by nascent opportunities or restricted options. This impressive study has many lessons to teach about the role that human resource considerations should play in any large-scale organizational change.