[Solved] Mergers and Acquisitions

  1. If the assignment is Question & Answer based then. · Introduction is needed for each question. · Question has to be answered based on the mark allotted for each question with references if any idea or information is taken from another source. 2. If the assignment is case-based then, · Executive summary · Table of content · Body of assignment (questions related to case need to be answered) · Conclusion / Recommendation if any · References (in-text + citation) to be used.   Total Marks / 60   PLAGIARISM   Plagiarism is a form of cheating, by representing someone else’s work as your own or using someone else’s work (another student or author) without acknowledging it with a reference. This is a serious breach of the Academic Regulations and will be dealt with accordingly. Students found to have plagiarised can be excluded from the program.   Plagiarism occurs whenever you do any of the following things without acknowledging the original source: ü Copy information from any source (including the study guide, books, newspapers, the internet) ü Use another person’s concepts or ideas ü Summarise or paraphrase another person’s work.       How do I avoid plagiarism?   To ensure you are not plagiarising, you must acknowledge with a reference whenever you: ü use another person’s ideas, opinions, or theory ü include any statistics, graphs, or images that have been compiled or created by another person or organization ü Paraphrase another’s written or spoken word.       What are the penalties?     The penalties for plagiarism are ü Deduction of marks, ü A mark of zero for the assignment or the unit, or ü Exclusion from the program. Plagiarism is dealt with on a case-by-case basis and the penalties will reflect the seriousness of the breach.     Please note claiming that you were not aware of the need to reference is no excuse. Case Study:     In the past, the decision criteria for mergers and acquisitions were typically based on considerations such as the strategic fit of the merged organizations, financial criteria, and operational criteria. Mergers and acquisitions were often conducted without much regard for the human resource issues that would be faced when the organizations were joined. As a result, several undesirable effects on the organizations’ human resources commonly occurred. Nonetheless, competitive conditions favor mergers and acquisitions and they remain a frequent occurrence. Examples of mergers among some of the largest companies include the following: Honeywell and Allied Signal, British Petroleum and Amoco, Exxon and Mobil, Lockheed and Martin, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, SBC and Pacific Telesis, America Online and Time Warner, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe, Union Pacific and Southern Pacific, Daimler-Benz and Chrysler, Ford and Volvo, and Bank of America and Nations Bank.     Layoffs often accompany mergers or acquisitions, particularly if the two organizations are from the same industry. In addition to layoffs related to redundancies, top managers of acquiring firms may terminate some competent employees because they do not fit in with the new culture of the merged organization or because their loyalty to the new management may be suspect. The desire for a good fit with the cultural objectives of the new organization and loyalty is understandable. However, the depletion of the stock of human resources deserves serious consideration, just as with physical resources. Unfortunately, the way that mergers and acquisitions have been carried out has often conveyed a lack of concern for human resources.     A sense of this disregard is revealed in the following observation: Post combination integration strategies vary in tactics, some resemble “marriage & love’ but in reality, collaborative mergers are much more hostile in implementing the forceful decision and financial takeovers. Yet, as a cursory scan of virtually any newspaper or popular business magazine readily reveals, the simple fact is that the latter is much more common than the former. The cumulative effects of these developments often cause employee morale and loyalty to decline, and feelings of betrayal may develop. Nonetheless, such adverse consequences are not inevitable. A few companies, such as Cisco Systems, which has made over 50 acquisitions (https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/corporate-strategy-office/acquisitions/acquisitions-list- years.html), are very adept in handling the human resource issues associated with these actions. An example of one of Cisco’s practices is illustrative. At Cisco Systems, no one from an acquired firm is laid off without the personal approval of Cisco’s CEO as well as the CEO of the firm that was acquired.   QUESTIONS:     1. Investigate the approach that Cisco Systems has used in its many successful acquisitions. What are some of the human resource practices that have made its acquisitions successful?   2. If human resources are a major source of competitive advantage and the key determinant of an organization’s ability to pursue a given strategy, why have the human resource aspects of mergers and acquisitions been ignored or handled poorly in so many instances in the past?   3. Interview someone who has been through a merger or acquisition. Find out how they felt like an employee. Determine how they and their coworkers were affected. Ask about the effects on productivity, loyalty, and morale. Find out what human resource practices were used and obtain their evaluations of what was helpful or harmful.

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