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1998 was undoubtedly the year of the merger. More companies than ever before joined together in deals that toatalled $2.25 trillion and created the world's biggest oil company. Faced with plummeting oil prices,oil giants Exxon and Mobil sought to achieve economies of scale through a $250bn merger
there are several factors behind increase in mergers and acquisitions. Firstly, the accelerated rate of globalisation has left companies desperately seeking overseas acquisitions in order to remain competitive. Deutsche Bank bought its way into the US with its takerover of the Bankers Trust,whilst Siemens hopes that its acquisition of Matra,the French defense group,will allow it to gain access to France's railway business,which is dominated by Alstom,the Anglo-French consortium.
Another factor behind the increase in merger activity is the record performance of the stock markets,which has enabled companies to finance major acquisitions on the strength of their inflated shareprices. Earlier this year Vodafone,the UK mobile telephone operator,acquired its US counterpart AirTorch by by making Airtorch shareholders a cash and stock swap offer worth a total $62bn. The deal created Vodafone AirTorch,the world's largest mobile telecoms group with over 29m customers.the European banking sector is also seeing a trend towards consolidation,a process accelerated by deregulation, over-capacity and the arrival of the single European currency.
New technology is also making it easier for companies to diversify as different industries come to rely on common technologies. Microsoft, for instance, is busily diversified into cable and telecommunications as well as WebTV. The US software giant has a $5bn equity stake in AT&T, which recently bought Media One for $57bn. Under the deal, Microsoft will succeed in introducing its recently-launched cable television software into millions of homes in the US and UK.
Not all mergers,however,are the result of global economy trends,polical chage or technological innovation. BMW's takeover of the Rover Group injected much needed investment into the struggling UK car manufacturer whilst extending BMW's product range. and when the UK pharmaceutical firm Zeneca merged with Swedish drug company Astra,the new companies started with strong R&D capabilities,further by the world's best selling drug Losec in its portfolio of products.
Despite of these potential benefits and their promise of competive advantage,mergers and acquisitions are not risk-free ventures.
Such alliances are more than just financial agreements;they also involve the coming together of different corporate and, in many cases,national cultures. This can have a destabilising effect on a workforce and may mean projected efficiencies are not delivered. Daimler and Chrysler, for example, face the challenge of integrating two very different corporate and national cultures.
A further destabilising effect is the prospect of redundancies as companies look to reduce their payroll by restructuring duplicated functions such as marketing and administration. Although shareholders are lured by such short-term savings,there is little evidence to show that mergers and acquisitions actually add long-term value to company performance.
中文譯稿:
企業檔案：兼并的魔力
1998年無疑是個兼并年。歷史上從來沒有這么多的公司進行兼并，交易總值達到22500億美元，從而產生了全球最大的銀行和石油公司。在石油價格暴跌的情況下，石油巨擘埃克森和美孚為尋求規模經濟的效應而達成了2500億美元的并購交易。
許多因素決定了并購的增加。首先，全球化速度的加快使很多公司拼命在海外收購公司，以此來保持競爭力。德意志銀行通過收購銀行家信托公司引入了美國市場，而西門子則希望通過收購法國的軍工企業馬特拉取得進入法國鐵路行業的通行證，該行業一直被英法合資企業阿爾斯通所掌控。
兼并增加的另外一個因素是股票市場取得了歷史佳績，飛漲的股票是許多公司有資金來進行大規模的并購活動。今年年初，英國移動電話營運商沃達豐向空中通訊的股東提出了總值達620億美元的現金換股票交易，從而收購了美國移動通訊巨商：空中通訊。這筆交易產生了全球最大，擁有2900萬客戶的移動通訊公司：沃達豐空中通訊集團公司。
歐洲銀行業也呈現合并的趨勢。隨著管制的解除，生產能力過剩以及單一歐洲貨幣的實行，這種趨勢更是加速發展。
由于不同 開始運用相同的技術，所以新技術也有助于公司實現市場多元化。比如，微軟就忙于向電纜通訊、移動通訊及網絡電視行業拓展。這家網絡巨擘在美國電信電話公司擁有50億美元的股權，而美國電信電話公司最近又以570億美元的價格收購了有線網絡運營公司。在這筆交易中，微軟公司成功地將其新發布的有線電視軟件推向數以百萬計的美國和英國家庭。
然而并不是所有的并購都是全球經濟發展趨勢、政治變革或技術創新的結果。寶馬收購羅夫汽車集團以后給這家奄奄一息的英國汽車制造公司注入了急需的投資，同時也拓展了寶馬的生產線。當英國的英捷利康醫藥公司和瑞典的阿斯特拉醫藥公司合并后，新的公司由于強大的聯合研發能力而起死回生，不僅如此，新公司由于其各類產品中擁有全世界最暢銷的羅塞克爾進一步增強實力。
盡管并購有著如此之多的潛在利益以及未來優勢，但并不是毫無風險可言。
這種聯合并不只是經濟合同，他們也需要把不同的公司文化和國家文化融合在一起。這可能會造成雇員隊伍人心渙散，也可能預示著預定的效益無法達到。例如：戴姆斯-克萊斯勒就要面對如何將兩種不同的公司文化和民族文化融合在一起的挑戰。
當公司希望通過重組市場部和行政部這樣的重復部門來減少薪酬開支時，進一步實行的裁員會進步造成人心惶惶的局面。雖然股東都經不起這種短期節省開支的誘惑，但是沒有證據表明并購實際上能提升公司長期的業績。
