Marketing-Related Motives in Mergers & Acquisitions: The Perspective of the U.S. Food Industry

ISBN-13: 9783824476695 / Angielski / Miękka / 2002 / 188 str.

Denise Dahlhoff

Opis

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have been a preferred growth strategy of fums, becoming even more popular in recent years with U.S. companies. Often, transaction prices reach Ievels ofbillions ofEuros (e.g., Kraft Foods' acquisition ofNabisco in 2000). It is noteworthy that the motives of such transactions are not limited to material assets. lmmaterial market-based assets, such as brands, have played an increasing role. Both practitioners and academics have widely recognized brands' significance for companies. Until now, however, research has neglected to investigate the importance of market-based assets in M&As. This research provides a tool which can be used to quantizy the relative importance of market-based assets that are ofparticular interest in M&As. The contribution of this research is twofold. The first contribution is the examination of specific M&A motives in the U.S. food industry based on a sample of recently proposed M&As and their influence on shareholder value drivers. The second is the development and empirical application of a measurement tool. This tool is able to quanti: ty motives of particular M&A cases and their relative importance.

Spis treści

Rationale of M&As and Conditions of the U.S. Food Industry Analysis of Motives in Recent Food Industry M&As Methodology of a Conjoint Study for Brand Acquisitions Results and Discussion of Conjoint Study

O autorze

Dr. Denise Dahlhoff promovierte bei Prof. Dr. Henrik Sattler am Lehrstuhl für Marketing und Handel der Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena. Sie ist derzeit Dozentin an der Johnson School of Management der Cornell University (Ithaca/New York).

Blurb

The U.S. food industry experienced a wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) during the second half of the last decade. Increasingly, marketing-related objectives have been suspected to cause these M&As.

Denise Dahlhoff investigates the motives underlying the M&A activity in the U.S. food industry in the second half of the last decade. The focus is on marketing-related motives, especially brands, as a driver of M&As. Utilizing the shareholder value framework, the author explains the surge of M&As in the U.S. food industry in recent years; she explores the specific motives of significant M&As in the food industry, linking these motives to shareholder value drivers; she develops a quantitative measurement tool for depicting firms' M&A rationale and applies it in a pilot study. Including both marketing and financial perspectives, Denise Dahlhoff demonstrates how marketing-oriented M&As can generate growth and, ultimately, shareholder value. The findings of this analysis can be applied to similarly structured industries, in particular consumer goods.