M.Comm. / South Africa has been going through a sweeping transformation process since the early 1990's. This transformation process unleashed new political and economic dynamics in the country which had far reaching consequences for all its citizens. One of the most important economical consequences of this process was trade liberalisation. The South African economy opened its doors overnight to a highly competitive international business environment. The sheltered economic seclusion characterised by the "apartheid era" was suddenly something of the past. The African National Congress government released its new macro-economic strategy entitled: Growth, employment and redistribution (GEAR) in 1996. It became evident that economic growth and job creation were the major challenges facing the new government. (Botha, 1998:6) South Africa, as an emerging market, is becoming more confident of its strength in an international environment and is viewed by the international community as the gateway to Africa and therefore an attractive partner of choice. (Parsons, 1999:41) South African businesses will in this regard inevitably be exposed to international practices and trends. One of these international trends is the rampant occurrence of cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Ettorre (1999:8) explains this trend as follows: "An astonishing $1,3 trillion in merger and acquisition activity took place in the United States in the first quarter of last year alone. That is a colossal urge to merge. Unfortunately, as the experts report, between 60 percent and 80 percent of mergers are financially unsuccessful. That is a colossal waste of resources and human capital".The merger and acquisition trend is moving like a tidal wave into the global arena.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:9127 |
| Date | 13 August 2012 |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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