Reasons for Frequent Failure in Mergers and Acquisitions

This is an important book. The topic is important, and Dr. Straub approaches it with a new approach. In fact, one could say that the book’s importance stems from its lack of disciplinary focus, relying instead on a holistic understanding of the phenomenon. Too often, academic research is pursued within a narrowly defined academic “field”, necessarily blinding researchers to realities whose essence is inter-disciplinary. This is typically the case with research on Mergers & Acquisitions, making most of the “findings” relatively unimportant for practice. Yet M&A are a crucial part of business development. It is evident that companies’ long-term success is at least partially dependent on their strategic actions. And these are often shaped in practice by merger and acquisition activity. Thus phenomena as varied as globalization, value-chain optimization, or product diversification are often implemented as M&A operations. In no few cases, M&A activity constitutes the company’s strategy. If, as noted above, strategic moves do have an impact on lo- term success, it follows that M&A activities are at the core of many business successes… and failures. As such, they play an important role in the development of the whole society: wealth is created (or destroyed) mostly by companies. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the phenomenon is its very high failure rate.

Dr. Thomas Straub ist Professor für Unternehmensführung und Organisation am Fachbereich Wirtschaft und Verwaltung der Fachhochschule Bern