The Success and Failure of Mergers & Acquisitions in technology industries. A strategic analysis of an Aerospace and Defence multinational.
Due to an intense rise in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A’s) over the past few decades, external growth strategies have become commonplace, particularly within increasingly competitive high-tech industries. Failure to achieve growth leaves firms behind the curve, and potentially risks them being a...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Dissertation (University of Nottingham only) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45276/ |
| _version_ | 1848797102158643200 |
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| author | Aitken, Tom |
| author_facet | Aitken, Tom |
| author_sort | Aitken, Tom |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Due to an intense rise in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A’s) over the past few decades, external growth strategies have become commonplace, particularly within increasingly competitive high-tech industries. Failure to achieve growth leaves firms behind the curve, and potentially risks them being acquired by a larger organisation. However, a paradox exists whereby despite the increase in M&A’s, they reportedly have high failure rates. Many fail to achieve expected synergies, and there is not yet consensus in the literature to provide a definitive model for growth through M&A’s. The complexity of the acquisition process has resulted in a major research focus in recent years investigating financial, strategic, cultural, and operational aspects; especially in high-tech industries. The current piece of work examines the reasons why firms engage in M&A’s, how they carry them out, and addresses their failure rate in a number of industries. Subsequently, there is an analysis at firm level involving a recent acquisition made by Leonardo, an Aerospace and Defence Multinational Enterprise; in which pre-acquisition expectations (financial and strategical) are compared to actual performance, using historical data and interviews. Findings suggest that firm acquisition processes would benefit from thorough pre-acquisition screening, clear rationale, and realistic expectation setting both financially and strategically. Additionally, the paper offers insights into acquisition management, finding that firms should implement a clear integration process to manage culture and retain key staff. Finally, this research suggests that more needs to be done by firms to effectively monitor post-acquisition progress, maintaining and enhancing performance. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:58:32Z |
| format | Dissertation (University of Nottingham only) |
| id | nottingham-45276 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:58:32Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-452762018-04-17T15:27:20Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45276/ The Success and Failure of Mergers & Acquisitions in technology industries. A strategic analysis of an Aerospace and Defence multinational. Aitken, Tom Due to an intense rise in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A’s) over the past few decades, external growth strategies have become commonplace, particularly within increasingly competitive high-tech industries. Failure to achieve growth leaves firms behind the curve, and potentially risks them being acquired by a larger organisation. However, a paradox exists whereby despite the increase in M&A’s, they reportedly have high failure rates. Many fail to achieve expected synergies, and there is not yet consensus in the literature to provide a definitive model for growth through M&A’s. The complexity of the acquisition process has resulted in a major research focus in recent years investigating financial, strategic, cultural, and operational aspects; especially in high-tech industries. The current piece of work examines the reasons why firms engage in M&A’s, how they carry them out, and addresses their failure rate in a number of industries. Subsequently, there is an analysis at firm level involving a recent acquisition made by Leonardo, an Aerospace and Defence Multinational Enterprise; in which pre-acquisition expectations (financial and strategical) are compared to actual performance, using historical data and interviews. Findings suggest that firm acquisition processes would benefit from thorough pre-acquisition screening, clear rationale, and realistic expectation setting both financially and strategically. Additionally, the paper offers insights into acquisition management, finding that firms should implement a clear integration process to manage culture and retain key staff. Finally, this research suggests that more needs to be done by firms to effectively monitor post-acquisition progress, maintaining and enhancing performance. 2017-08-30 Dissertation (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45276/1/Dissertationpdf.pdf Aitken, Tom (2017) The Success and Failure of Mergers & Acquisitions in technology industries. A strategic analysis of an Aerospace and Defence multinational. [Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)] |
| spellingShingle | Aitken, Tom The Success and Failure of Mergers & Acquisitions in technology industries. A strategic analysis of an Aerospace and Defence multinational. |
| title | The Success and Failure of Mergers & Acquisitions in technology industries. A strategic analysis of an Aerospace and Defence multinational. |
| title_full | The Success and Failure of Mergers & Acquisitions in technology industries. A strategic analysis of an Aerospace and Defence multinational. |
| title_fullStr | The Success and Failure of Mergers & Acquisitions in technology industries. A strategic analysis of an Aerospace and Defence multinational. |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Success and Failure of Mergers & Acquisitions in technology industries. A strategic analysis of an Aerospace and Defence multinational. |
| title_short | The Success and Failure of Mergers & Acquisitions in technology industries. A strategic analysis of an Aerospace and Defence multinational. |
| title_sort | success and failure of mergers & acquisitions in technology industries. a strategic analysis of an aerospace and defence multinational. |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45276/ |