Mergers and acquisitions in the light of 1992 — Ensuring strategic good sense underpins corporate ambitions

The prospect of executing acquisitions in Europe currently generates more excitement than almost any other item on the corporate agenda. Venturing out of the home market is regarded once more as a test of management virility.Yet without sound strategic analysis coupled with a careful review of management capacity, ventures abroad are highly risky and may represent poor value for shareholders. This paper returns to the fundamentals required for a methodical review of the merits of expansion by acquisition in unfamiliar territory. It concludes that it is important to marry the theoretical analysis with the most careful commercial review.