Customer Reviews

Harvard Business Review on Mergers & Acquisitions

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book has a a few very informative articles/chapters. It virtually covers the entire M&A continuum from deal strategy through post merger integration. It has a fatal flaw however due to its format and that is a lack of consistency from one section to the next. By jumping from one author to another, the reader is subjected to guidance that is often contradicted or not considered a few chapters later by another author. That is why I prefer books offering guidance on the subject from a thoughtleader or practitioner who can walk me through the entire process from beginning to end. I am comforted knowing I am not being plied with theory that will be refuted 30 pages later. The book does include some very learned insights from previous authors of HBR articles, which most of us have read before but fails to include others such as Drs. Mark Feldman, Pat Gaughin, David Greenspan, Mark Clemente and Jac Fitz-Enz who are some of the finest minds and true heavyweights in the fields of culture, process, organizational development, and integration. I know because- as a Harvard alumna and corporate strategist for 20 years - I have worked as an employee alongside some of these M&A pioneers at such firms as AT&T, Lucent, IBM, and Citibank watching them give birth to the M&A scriptures. Each has penned their guidance in other less lofty titles which take the reader the whole way through the M&A experience while sharing successes, failures, theory, and case studies. This book is impressive to put on one's shelf and it does indeed have some very practical applications for today's corporate combinations. Yet the comprehensive guidance offered by these other authors eclipses the magazine-like compilation contained herein. It sorely misses their contributions.

I don't think this is a bad collection of articles. However, its contents are no longer relevant today. The book opens with the announced merger of AOL and Time Warner, hailing it as a great development. We now know how spectacularly that deal collapsed. The article then continues with a discussion of how M&A is 'different' in the internet age, and how this justifies ever larger takeover sums. Worldcom is then given as an example; another icon of the excesses of the internet boom that imploded. Participant in the opening discussion is Dennis Kozlowski, who is now serving eight to twenty-five years in prison for his role in the Tyco scandals.

I admit, all of this is entertaining enough from a historical perspective. However, it should be beneath Harvard Business Review to keep on milking no longer relevant content for a few extra dollars profit at airports, college bookstores etc.

. . . to hanging around with a bunch of practicioners swapping war stories and advise/wisedom/opinion. As the other reviewer said, the advise is at times contradictory, which is exactly what you get from talking to the professionals who do this all the time. There are some thing which everyone agrees on, and much of the rest is personal style.

A good review of some old classics. The articles are helpful in building a strong foundation in the subject.