Acquisitions: A directional policy matrix approach

There are few techniques available to aid corporate planners with strategic evaluation of potential acquisitions in a comprehensive and consistent manner. A substantial amount has been written about the general philosophy of acquisitions and, at the other end of the scale, about the detailed analysis of an individual company when it has been pulled under the financial microscope. This paper describes a technique that has been developed to systematically evaluate potential acquisitions with regard to their strategic qualitative considerations.