Читать книгу Applied Mergers and Acquisitions - Robert F. Bruner - Страница 67

History is a tough instructor. Though its lessons are sometimes obscure, their ramifications can be severe. And, more often than not, they prove to be vital in charting a course for the future. This is why any serious student of M&A should reflect on the past century of activity. This chapter highlights some of the competing explanations for the activity we observe over time. Though these explanations are not mutually exclusive, one of them yields useful insights for the practitioner. This explanation argues that M&A activity is not a result of random behavior by managers, but rather is motivated by deep forces of change at work in an economy. Thus, to understand the influence of those forces is to be able to anticipate opportunities and challenges in the transaction development process. This chapter sketches some practical implications of this view.