Chapter 12: Mergers and Acquisitions

Introduction

From a financial view, there are many differences between mergers and acquisitions. However, there are fewer differences in terms of project management. Even in one country many mergers and acquisitions totally and completely fail— not during the negotiations, but after the deal has been completed. Here are some of the common ugly occurrences:

• The acquiring or dominant firm that survives has to write down much of the value of what was acquired.

• The good people leave from both organizations.

• The business processes are not combined so that there are no economies of scale.

• So much attention was placed on the organization that systems, procedures, and policies were ignored.

• Only headquarters units were considered. No one thought of the separate country offices. They were going to sort that out later. It didn’t happen. Processes and work fell apart country by country.