This PhD thesis consists of three empirical papers. Each paper can be read independently. However, all three papers investigate different factors affecting the performance of firms involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and initial public offerings (IPOs). A private firm seeking to become listed and who also wish to grow through acquisition can do so with an IPO followed by acquisitions or a reverse takeover (RT). In a RT, a private firm is acquired by a public firm, but the private firm controls the combined public entity after completion of the deal. Chapter 2, 'Post-acquisition performance when firms list and acquire simultaneously versus sequentially: Reverse takeover versus IPO-M&As', examines the differential performance of firms conducting an IPO prior to undertaking follow-on acquisitions (IPO-M&As) versus firms that combine the process of obtaining the listing and acquiring another firm by conducting a RT. I investigate how acquirers' choices affect their post-acquisition performances. In this paper, I also investigate the impact of board structure changes on firm performance in IPO-M&A and RT deals. This event study covers RTs and acquisition-motived IPOs listed on the London Stock Exchange during 1995-2012. Challenging the theoretical expectation that IPOs increase the likelihood of optimal exercise of acquisition options by reducing valuation uncertainty, my results show that an IPO does not alleviate the stock market underperformance of acquirers within 3 years post-acquisition. Private firms seem to self-select into different listing-and-acquisition routes depending on firm-specific characteristics and the board members keep the same level of control preference. However, the choice of listing-and-acquisition does not appear to significantly affect performance. I find no significant difference in the post-acquisition performance of firms undertaking IPO-M&As or RTs. Chapter 3, 'Post-acquisition performance of target firms: The impact of management turnover', investigates the efficiency of the takeover market and the impact of management turnover on target firm performance. Investigating separately the operating performance of targets and acquirers in U.K. domestic acquisitions during 2006-2014, I find that the post-acquisition peer-adjusted profits significantly improve in the unprofitable targets but do not change significantly in profitable targets. Both profitable and unprofitable targets experienced high management turnovers, but the improvement in profits does not appear to be driven by the management turnover. The reason of management turnovers is more complex than the acquisitions' market discipline function or resource-based management hypothesis. However, a complete turnover of top management in target firms seems to hurt the post-acquisition performance of acquirers, suggesting target management team may possess valuable information to facilitate the integration process. This study sheds light on the post-acquisition restructuring of target firms and their management teams, especially in private targets. Chapter 4, 'Identifying leaders among IPO firms: a content analysis of analyst coverage reports', investigates how analysts identify firms as a leader and whether leader firms go on to generate superior operating performance to non-leaders. Using a content analysis approach, I extract sentences including the keyword 'lead' from initial coverage reports and pick out sentences where the IPO firm is identified as either an 'industry leader' or 'partial leader'. I examine the textual content of initial coverage reports on U.S. IPOs during 1999-2012 and find that lead-underwriter analysts appear not to be more optimistic than non-lead-underwriters in their leadership identification of IPO firms, however, nor are they more accurate than non-lead-underwriters in identifying leader firms. I find that neither firms identified by analysts as industry leaders nor firms identified as having partial leadership advantages tend to generate superior peer-adjusted net sales or profit margins compared to non-leaders. The Global Settlement in 2003 significantly reduced the likelihood, frequency and intensity of partial leadership identification. Although there is no explicit regulation requirement on the text content in analyst reports, analysts have become more conservative in identifying a firm as a leader after the Global Settlement. This study helps investors to understand the incremental information of leadership identification in analyst reports, beyond the quantitative outputs such as stock recommendations.

The organizational change of the Swedish police force has become the victim of massive criticism due to the negative results that have continued since 2015. After the organization experienced a structural change that was something between a merger and an acquisition the operational results have continued to decline. One aspect that has been left out of the discussion has been the organizational identity change of the police. Previous research on organizational identity have been very interested in structural organizational changes and have found a vast number of results in different contexts. Identity ambiguity, who are we as an organization, have been present in many cases. Weakened legitimacy claims and changed operational activities have been noticed in many as well. This is studied with a qualitative methodology and an inductive research approach. Information from nine interviews with current and former members of the Västerås police department make up the data that is analysed. What is discovered is the emergence of frustration as an organizational characteristic. This is experienced through all levels of the organization and has resulted in superfluity and resignations.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T16:45:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Vilma Ataide Lorey.pdf: 341742 bytes, checksum: e03c768ed0886fadb37dd0bd9915ceae (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-21 / The dynamics of the business world today have caused organizational strategies to adjust to a complex movement marked by globalization, competitiveness and uncertainties. In this context, organizations must seek sustainable alternatives to compete in the market. Among these alternatives, there is a much concern in the implementation of business models focused on strategic brand positioning, partnerships and strategic alliances, and mergers and acquisitions processes, which are used to strengthen the organization in a market in which it already acts or to help enter new markets. In examining the trends of the economy, the financial sector gained prominence due to the increase of credit, heating of the economy, opening of new markets, facilities for communication and information exchange globally. Within the credit card market, the trend of replacing checks with credit cards continues to grow and will remain in the coming years, as plastic money is increasingly more and more popular. Based on this scenario, the goal of this dissertation is to verify as the acquisition process influences the changes in the credit card market and strengthens the position of banks in this industry. To achieve this objective, the research methodology used was a case study of a merger and acquisition process which occurred between two banks that manage credit card issuing. We performed non-structured interviews with the key players who participated in all stages of the process of merger and acquisition. The main conclusion of this work is the confirmation that mergers and acquisitions strengthen the competitive positioning of the banks, which is of course, the primary objective. In the case study, the strategy of buying market share in the premium segment was achieved, in addition to having access to skilled resources and new technologies / A dinâmica do mundo dos negócios na atualidade fez com que as estratégias organizacionais se adaptassem a um movimento complexo marcado pela globalização, competitividade, dinamismo e incertezas. Neste contexto, as organizações precisam buscar alternativas sustentáveis para se manterem no mercado. Entre essas alternativas, há uma preocupação acentuada na implantação de modelos de administração estratégica voltados para o posicionamento de marca, formação de parcerias e alianças estratégicas, processos de fusões e aquisições para se fortalecer junto a um mercado onde já possui atividades ou iniciar atuações em mercados desconhecidos. Ao analisar as tendências da economia, o setor financeiro ganha destaque devido ao aumento do crédito, aquecimento da economia, abertura de novos mercados, facilidades de comunicação e trocas de informações globais. Considerando as transformações ocorridas no mercado de cartão de crédito, a substituição do cheque pelo cartão continua crescendo. A tendência de substituição do cheque pelo cartão vai se manter nos próximos anos, uma vez que o dinheiro de plástico está cada vez mais popular. Com base nesse cenário o objetivo dessa dissertação de mestrado foi verificar como o processo de aquisição influencia as transformações no mercado de cartão de crédito e fortalece o posicionamento dos bancos nesse setor. Para alcançar esse objetivo, a metodologia de pesquisa utilizada foi um estudo de caso de um processo de fusão e aquisição ocorrido entre dois bancos para gerenciamento de emissão de cartão de créditos. Foram realizadas entrevistas não-estruturadas junto a atores que participaram de todas as fases do processo de fusão e aquisição. Os principais resultados desse trabalho foram: a confirmação do objetivo geral de que as fusões e aquisições que ocorreram nos últimos anos fortaleceram o posicionamento dos bancos. No estudo de caso a estratégia de comprar market share no segmento premium foi alcançada além de ter acesso a recursos qualificados e a novas tecnologias

<p>Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the corporate world are achieving increasing importance and attention especially in the advent of intense globalization. This is evident from the magnitude and growth of deal values and resultant ‘mega-mergers’ transacted in recent times. As expert advisory are sought in M&A activities to facilitate the undertaking and maximise the value of the transaction, advisory firms begin to play a more significant and at the same time lucrative role in M&A activities, to the extent of determining the outcome of such projects. Being an area of limited research, it is thus valuable to investigate what M&A advisory firms view as critical success factors to the projects they undertake. Consequently, the research question of “What are the critical success factors for merger & acquisition projects in the view of merger & acquisition advisory firms” has been raised. A list of ten critical success factors for M&A projects is firstly identified from an extensive literature review. These factors are (1) Complete and Clear objectives, goals and scope of the project, (2) Client consultation and acceptance, (3) Project manager’s competence and commitment, (4) Project team member’s competence and commitment, (5) Communication and information sharing and exchange, (6) Project plan development, (7) M&A advisory firm’s resource planning, (8) Time management and tight secrecy, (9) Price evaluation and financing scheme, and (10) Risk management.</p><p>In an attempt to explore the importance of each factor in the practical context, data have been collected through three research methods. Primarily, the authors conduct a semi-structured interview with six interviewees currently working in three organizations which provide professional services related to M&A projects. Meanwhile, a self-completion questionnaire method is employed, following which a sample of 325 M&A advisory firms based in the U.S. is selected to participate in an online survey. In addition, the authors follow a case study approach based on the three organizations of the six interviewees in order to establish comprehensive knowledge about issues relating to M&A projects.</p><p>In response to the research question, the findings strongly indicate that seven out of ten factors in the original list have a positive impact, being the factors listed above as (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (8), and (9). On the other hand, it revealed the lesser importance of the other three. In addition, three new factors have been discovered from analyzing the data collected, being (i) Having a number of key potential buyers with suitable profile (ii) Right, correct and complete information and data in the data room, and (iii) The quality of the selling company. While as another outcome of this research, further practical insights have been provided regarding the role of M&A advisory firms, the M&A process, common issues faced by M&A projects and the success criteria for M&A projects.</p><p>The findings from this research contribute valuable new knowledge to both researchers and practitioners in both project management and M&A fields, while facilitating the achievement of successful M&A projects.</p>

Mergers and acquisitions (M&amp;A) in the corporate world are achieving increasing importance and attention especially in the advent of intense globalization. This is evident from the magnitude and growth of deal values and resultant ‘mega-mergers’ transacted in recent times. As expert advisory are sought in M&amp;A activities to facilitate the undertaking and maximise the value of the transaction, advisory firms begin to play a more significant and at the same time lucrative role in M&amp;A activities, to the extent of determining the outcome of such projects. Being an area of limited research, it is thus valuable to investigate what M&amp;A advisory firms view as critical success factors to the projects they undertake. Consequently, the research question of “What are the critical success factors for merger &amp; acquisition projects in the view of merger &amp; acquisition advisory firms” has been raised. A list of ten critical success factors for M&amp;A projects is firstly identified from an extensive literature review. These factors are (1) Complete and Clear objectives, goals and scope of the project, (2) Client consultation and acceptance, (3) Project manager’s competence and commitment, (4) Project team member’s competence and commitment, (5) Communication and information sharing and exchange, (6) Project plan development, (7) M&amp;A advisory firm’s resource planning, (8) Time management and tight secrecy, (9) Price evaluation and financing scheme, and (10) Risk management. In an attempt to explore the importance of each factor in the practical context, data have been collected through three research methods. Primarily, the authors conduct a semi-structured interview with six interviewees currently working in three organizations which provide professional services related to M&amp;A projects. Meanwhile, a self-completion questionnaire method is employed, following which a sample of 325 M&amp;A advisory firms based in the U.S. is selected to participate in an online survey. In addition, the authors follow a case study approach based on the three organizations of the six interviewees in order to establish comprehensive knowledge about issues relating to M&amp;A projects. In response to the research question, the findings strongly indicate that seven out of ten factors in the original list have a positive impact, being the factors listed above as (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (8), and (9). On the other hand, it revealed the lesser importance of the other three. In addition, three new factors have been discovered from analyzing the data collected, being (i) Having a number of key potential buyers with suitable profile (ii) Right, correct and complete information and data in the data room, and (iii) The quality of the selling company. While as another outcome of this research, further practical insights have been provided regarding the role of M&amp;A advisory firms, the M&amp;A process, common issues faced by M&amp;A projects and the success criteria for M&amp;A projects. The findings from this research contribute valuable new knowledge to both researchers and practitioners in both project management and M&amp;A fields, while facilitating the achievement of successful M&amp;A projects.

The diploma thesis deals with takeover techniques and regulation of takeovers in the Czech law system. In the theoretical part of the paper there are explained key definitions and general facts concerning with takeovers. The main theme of the theoretical part analyzes the most frequent takeover techniques. The paper studies how particular techniques work. It also takes into account expert discussions about the takeover theme. The takeover laws of the Czech Republic are analyzed in the second part of the diploma thesis. The paper contains a synthesis of theoretical findings and regulation of corresponding laws. It reveals practical use of particular takeover techniques in the Czech Republic.

企業的持續成長是每一家企業所追求的目標之一，也是衡量企業營運績效之重要指標，當一個企業成長趨緩或開始衰退時，往往是企業遭遇困難的警訊。而企業能持續成長端賴競爭力之保有及持續提升，這在企業就必須具有企業競爭優勢策略，因而企業競爭優勢策略是提升企業經營績效的重要課題。 營運成長模式一般可分為內部成長與外部成長。內部成長是指經由公司內部新事業、新產品或新訂單與新客戶的增加使營業額成長；外部成長則是藉由外部策略聯盟、轉投資、購併等手段使公司能取得有利競爭優勢與地位或擴大營業規模。又因為藉由轉投資與購併經常能使企業之規模與競爭力獲得跳躍式成長，如美國通用電氣(General Electric)與思科(Cisco corp.)均為明顯而成功的案例，故在大部分企業經營時，其成為很多企業成長策略的主要選項。 然而，企業在選擇轉投資、策略聯盟或購併行為時，其策略與目標的訂定、購併與被購併企業之定位、整合；購併或轉投資的標的選擇與評估、計畫的規劃與執行等等，均影響外部成長之成敗，導致企業競爭力是否持續增進。 本研究針對垂直市場的產業內聯盟與轉投資為限制範圍，以聚焦於”垂直市場”產業內之轉投資有別於跨產業之投資行為，以”優勢競爭替代”之觀點來探討企業策略定位，以”組織變革”觀點來觀察購併與被購併或投資者與被投資者之定位策略與執行策略，以”累積長期競爭優勢”為標準來衡量與檢驗聯盟或轉投資之效益。 本研究針對研華股份有限公司轉投資艾訊股份有限公司之策略聯盟個案，以探索性研究方法依理論比較實務，研究其在策略聯盟之過程，探討此個案之策略與執行過程，期望能對研華與艾訊公司之策略作一研究與檢討並提出後續改進之建議。 本研究之歸納發現為： 一、 垂直市場競爭者之水平式策略聯盟或購併，如僅由發揮最大生產效率之綜效來考量，不易累積長久之競爭優勢。 二、 在垂直市場產業中，卓越的聯盟或購併之策略運用，在清楚的分析所處市場特性與公司定位以持續維持競爭優勢是策略思考的核心。 三、 破壞性創新思維運用在市場競爭策略上，市場在位者可提升維持性創新競爭力並同時可建立低階策略聯盟以形成阻止其他低階攻擊者障礙，足以保護現有市場在位領先者免於被競爭者侵蝕競爭力。形成結構上的長期競爭優勢。 四、 購併策略之執行，是否應將被併購企業併入，端賴兩方公司之策略定位。依據定位來檢視雙方之資源、流程與價值三個構面，當此三構面在雙方整合對整體策略有助益，則雙方應合併，反之則應維持獨立運作。 五、 雖然處於相同產業，但競爭之主要成功因素將因企業為維持性創新之市場在位者，或是防止低階、低價進攻者之阻攻者角色而有所改變；相對應的組織變革就應提出以確保策略之成功執行。 / The continuous revenue growth is one of the utmost goals that every enterprise seeks. It is also one of the key factors to measure the operation efficiency of an enterprise. It is an alarming signal that the enterprise is encountering serious challenges whenever the sales growth stays slow or encounters a recession. In order to keep the revenue grow consistently, an enterprise needs to sustain its competitiveness and keep its ascendancy as its cutting edge strategy. We can classify the growth engines into two categories: first, the internal growth engine which is contributed by new business, new products, and new orders; second, the external growth engine which is contributed by strategic alliances, M&A, and other investment opportunities. The enterprise usually gets a quantum jump on its business scale when a successful Merger & Acquisition is executed. The General Electric Co. and Cisco Co. cases are good examples of M&A. This probably explains why many companies place M&A and investment opportunity on high priority when setting growth strategies. However, when an enterprise adopts strategic alliance, M&A or diversified investment, its success depends heavily on its abilities of goal setting, positioning, targeting of Alliance Company, doing due-diligence, and solving culture conflict. This thesis investigates the strategic alliances and diversification investment between vertical market players, to focus on monistic industrial investment instead of cross industrial investment; reviews the company positioning strategy from the point of ascendancy competitiveness strategy; studies the execution of organization change between merger and merged companies and verifies the effectiveness of strategic alliances from the viewpoint of accumulated long term competitiveness advantages. The thesis studies from theoretical research to the case study of Advantech Co. which applies the exploratory research method. The Advantech Co. conducted an alliance with Axiomtek Co. in 2002 by stock swap between the two companies. Advantech owns 65% of Axiomtek after the alliance. It is my purpose to assay the process of strategic alliance and try to provide some advices to improve the effectiveness of this strategy. Conclusions can be summarized as follows 1. The strategic alliances or diversification investment between vertical market players can contribute less for cumulating the competitiveness if it is targeted to prevail by maximizing the production efficiency synergy. 2. A superior alliance strategy in vertical market is to analyze the market attributes and anchor the company positioning which helps the competitiveness accumulating for a player. 3. By implementing the disruptive innovation theory in market competition strategy, one company can develop alliance with a lower cost, 2nd tier or less functionality product provider to create the barrier for protecting attack from the disruptive competitors. 4. The resources, process and value are three scopes to judge whether two companies need be combined as one company or not. When those three measurements are formulating more advantages after combining based on mergers decision on companies positioning strategy, then, it should be combined as one company, otherwise vice versa. 5. The key success factors will be reformed accordingly if the acquirer re-positioning the company. A correspondent organization change also is recommended to be implemented.

生存、獲利以及成長是企業的目標。第二次世界大戰之後，國際性的商業活動快速的成長，隨著全球商業活動自由化、國際化，加上資訊科技的興起，市場全球化與生產全球化為企業創造了機會，也使得企業面臨的競爭環境日趨嚴峻，企業面臨來自全球的挑戰，威脅其生存與獲利。在競爭環境的迅速變動下，企業為了追求永續經營，不斷的成長成為企業生存之必要條件。購併是企業追求快速成長的捷徑之一。 雖然購併能夠幫助企業迅速取得所需要的關鍵資源，但是從所收集的資料顯示，失敗的購併案例還是佔了七成之多，可見成功的購併是一件相當不容易的事。 本研究所描述的個案企業是目前世界上歷史最悠久的化學與製藥公司，公司成立的日期可以回溯到西元1668年。以購併取得所需要的關鍵資源在該企業是常見的作法，所以該企業透過經驗的累積發展出購併相關活動的標準作業程序（SOP）。但是即使已經有豐富的購併經驗，並不是每一件購併案都能夠達成原先所設定的目標。 本研究希望透過研究實際購併案例的啟動購併動機與後續整合行動以印證相關購併理論，並且整理歸納出成功的購併案例中值得學習的作法以及失敗的購併案例中為何失敗的地方以供未來想要採取購併方式的企業作為參考。 歸納個案企業的購併案例得到以下結論。企業選擇購併作為成長方式的動機是為了達成綜效理論中所提及的啟動綜效、營運綜效和市場綜效。至於後續整合行動，在事前必須要有清楚的整合計畫、工作小組、組織架構與人事布局；然後透過即時且透明的溝通管道傳達給每一位員工；並且強化人力資源管理系統讓不管原本是屬於購併公司的員工還是被購併進來的員工都能夠清楚的瞭解自己在購併後的新組織中可能的職涯發展，協助所有員工穩定下來以渡過整合變動期。 / Survive, gain and grow are the targets for all companies. Business environment has been changed and globalization is the mainstream for all business activities after World War II. This change creates opportunities but also bring threats to companies. Companies now have to face challenges from all over the world. Keep growing is the means for companies to keep survival from these challenges. Merger and acquisition（M&A）is one of the shortcuts for companies to pursue fast growth. M&A can help companies to get key resources quickly. However, the chance to get fail is extremely high up to 70% from collected research data. Apparently it is not easy to have a success M&A case. This paper is describing a more than 300 years old pharmaceutical company whom accumulates a lot of experiences in M&A cases from company history. These M&A cases will be analyzed to prove related theories. Key successful factors will also be concluded for companies who will choose M&A as their growth alternative for reference. To sum up illustrated M&A cases, the motivation of a company to trigger M&A is aiming for starting synergy, operating synergy and market synergy. To ensure post-merger integration can proceed smoothly, it requires clear integration plan which contains dedicated task forces for execution, well-thought-out organization structure and important position appointment. Reinforce personnel system to ensure its function can provide necessary and sufficient assistance to all employees timely. Transparent and open communication channels shall be established in order to eliminate insecure atmosphere.