Bachelor-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2008.

Bachelor-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2008.

Diss., Technische Wissenschaften ETH Zürich, Nr. 14752, 2002.

Zugl.: München, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2010

Zugl.: Erlangen-Nürnberg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2006.

European Business School, Diss., 2005--Oestrich-Winkel.

In this research paper, business post-acquisition integration strategies and structures are introduced and discussed. Concepts are presented to demonstrate and support how formulation and implementation of these strategies and structures will safeguard smooth organisational change that will result in achieving synergy and value creation. Of paramount importance is that the activity of mergers and acquisitions enhances shareholder value and produce sustainable economic growth for the organisation concerned.The aim of this research is not to give an overview or an abundance of examples and data of recent mergers and acquisitions, but rather to present a case study of a dominant South African furniture and white appliance retailer’s post-acquisition integration process on assimilating two diverse acquisitions in the audio visual, electronic and office automation retail sector. The outcome is to present thoughts and insights on how the post-acquisition integration process should be organised, managed and implemented.One of the main reasons that value is not enhanced through business integration by means of mergers and acquisitions is the fact that the wrong corporate strategies and business integration strategies are formulated and selected. Another important factor is inadequate post merger management, not capable of handling the integration process and the major changes that take place in the organisation involved in the process. It has been noted in this paper that in order to increase shareholders’ value through M&A, a carefully planned and formulated strategy is critical and a proper post-merger management plan / action plan has to be drawn up, put in place, and implemented.The twelve maxims for successful mergers and acquisitions are identified. It is established that M&A should be part of a planned strategic activity and the outcomes of acquiring a company should meet clear and measurable business objectives. Finding the right approach for success is critical to the process. Taking time to fully understand the acquired business properly, making changes at the appropriate speed, acknowledging and dealing with cultural issues, communicating both vertically and horizontally, motivating and rewarding key people in both organisations, and establishing consistent managerial controls and reporting are important issues that need to be addressed and dealt with. If not properly addressed and if the wrong approaches are taken, business integration will fail and value will be destroyed. What can be concluded is that an increase in the value of the parent company through mergers and acquisitions is heavily dependent on the chosen integration strategy and on establishing proper post-merger management to guide and manage the process to its successful end. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The Problem: If common ownership of transportation modes is allowed, do the benefits of improved co-ordination of service between the various modes and the economies of joint management exceed the dangers of monopoly power that could be obtained by a large firm engaged in all modes of transportation? Methods of Investigation: Literature was reviewed to try to determine whether or not the logic of allowing a firm to engage in all forms of transportation is stronger than the logic of segregating the modes within the transportation-system. The arguments of those in favor of allowing common ownership are presented from a railway point of view. These individuals point to the financial plight of the railroads in today's transportation system. They argue that the railroads should be allowed to diversify to better utilize today’s intermodal techniques and economize by using the best combination of modes or a particular mode to suit the shipper's needs. Those opposed to common ownership feel that competition between the modes will be reduced and the rate of technological innovation will decline. They feel that railroad companies will gain monopoly powers that would be detrimental to the public interest. In the United States policy makers restrain common ownership and advocate voluntary co-operation between the modes. History of regulatory policy regarding common ownership is reviewed to try to determine if restraint has been beneficial to the transportation system. The nationalized period of British transportation is also reviewed to try to determine whether or not the pitfalls of this system of regulation could lead to the failure of a transportation system in which common ownership is allowed. Finally the history of the effects of no restriction of common ownership in Canada is studied. The extent of common ownership in Canada is described, with special attention given to the Province of British Columbia. An effort is made to try to determine if any monopoly power is apparent in the Canadian transportation system as a consequence of common ownership. Conclusions: Of the three approaches to regulation, the Canadian approach, of allowing common ownership holds the greatest promise of meeting today's transportation needs with the best techniques available. This approach is not based on the preservation of historical systems of transportation and the fear that railroads could again dominate transportation. It is possible, however, that large transportation companies could successfully administer prices if not closely controlled by regulatory bodies. The management of a transportation company should seek to use the most economic means of movement available, without bias toward a particular mode. If this is done both the company and the shipper will benefit from the use of the most modern techniques available in today's transportation system and improved techniques will arise through continued competition between similar firms and traditionally segregated firms, within future transportation systems. The United States should follow Canada's example in allowing freedom of common ownership. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Colombia's telecommunication industry has changed drastically in the last decade. Among the most salient events, a series of mergers between some of the industry's largest providers which resulted in a reduced number of competitors. One would expect that this reduction in the number of competitors would translate into higher prices. However, competition is at such high level that the media even talk about a "price war". My dissertation aims to shed light on the causes of this apparent inconsistency between a smaller number of competitors and more competitive outcomes. I start by showing that, in effect, the latest of these mergers, the one between Comcel and Telmex, had a pro-competitive effects on the provision of broadband. Next I show that the services provided by Comcel and Telmex were complements and that the pro-competitive effects of the merger can be explained by this complementarity. Finally, I study the effects of price discrimination under oligopolistic competition. In chapter 1 I assess the ex-post short-run effect on broadband provision of the Comcel-Telmex merger. Employing administrative data about the universe of plans and firms providing wired telecom services, I use several difference-in-difference specifications to obtain estimates for the effect of the merger on price and download speeds of plans provided by the merging firm and its rivals. My estimates suggest that, in markets affected by the merger, download speeds rose by .6 Megabits per second on average. The average increase in the markets resulted from increases in the plans offered by the merging firm (1.2 Mbps) and increases in the speeds of plans provided by its rivals (.5 Mbps). In chapter 2 I study mergers of firms producing complementary goods. Mergers of firms producing complementary products have ambiguous effects on consumer welfare. The merged firm may lower prices because the merger internalizes the profits originated by the complementarity. But with the merger the firm gains the ability to bundle and with bundles the firm can exert price discrimination, increasing the prices of standalone products. I employ a comprehensive, administrative data set, which records prices, market shares, and plan attributes of the universe of Colombia’s telecom carriers, to assess which effect dominates. I estimate a random-coefficient discrete choice model of consumer demand model for bundled and standalone telecom products, in which the degree of substitutability or complementarity among products is an essential parameter of interest. I find that major telecom products display a mix of substitutability and complementarity, but in general hardwired and mobile services are perceived as complements by Colombian households. My counterfactual experiments using the estimated model, indicate positive net effects of mergers with complements: despite a small increase in the price of standalone goods, consumer surplus increases by around 7 million dollars per quarter. Finally, in chapter 3, I study price discrimination in an oligopolistic setting. Economic theory is not conclusive about the effects of banning third degree price discrimination under imperfect competition. Price discrimination can enhance competition if the firms practicing don't agree on the ranking of their markets. In this case, price discrimination can lead to lower prices in all markets. Thus, forcing the firms to charge uniform prices can increase their profits and reduce consumers' surplus. Using data on prices, market shares and characteristics of telecommunication services sold under price discrimination by Colombian telecom providers, I estimate a model of competition. The estimates allow me to simulate a counterfactual scenario in which firms lose their ability to exert price discrimination within a city. Simulating a ban on price discrimination has negligible effect on consumer surplus and increases profits slightly.

This paper investigates the impact of advisors on the success of Canadian firms’ mergers and acquisitions. Using a sample of 791 deals from Canadian TSX listed acquiring firms from 2001 to 2015, we first investigate what types of firms hire advisors and top advisors in particular. Second we investigate two important hypotheses of mergers advisors role: (a) the superior deal hypothesis, which expects the improvement in firm performance after the support of an advisor; and, (b) the deal completion hypothesis, which expects higher completion rates and speed for advisor-backed acquirers. In summary, we found little support for the superior deal hypothesis. The short-term performance of an advisor-backed acquirer was significantly higher than that of non-advisor-backed acquirer only when the target has no advisor. The acquirer’s CAR was worst when both parties (acquirer and target) had an advisor. In addition, we saw no evidence that acquirers with top advisors generate higher short-term returns than those with lower tier advisors. When investigating the long-term performance, we do not find any significant evidence that advisors positively impacted value for acquirers. The same conclusion holds for the completion hypothesis as we discovered that advisors have no impact on the time to completion. All the analyses controlled for acquirer, target, and deal characteristics.