Mergers and Acquisitions - A Systems Approach

This study tests a pre-acquisition assessment framework against 2 of the largest mega-mergers in corporate history—one conspicuously successful (Exxon/Mobil) and one conspicuously unsuccessful (AOL/Time Warner) to determine if the assessment framework would have been capable of predicting the outcomes of the 2 mega-mergers. The assessment framework studies and evaluates these mega-mergers at a systems-level, taking into account 3 perspectives (i.e. strategic fit, organizational fit, and the process perspective) which dominate the merger & acquisition literature in terms of scholarly attempts to explain the underlying determinants of merger and acquisition success.