Google’s takeover of Motorola Mobility is given regulatory seal of approval
Google’s biggest-ever takeover has been given approval by competition regulators in both the EU and USA, paving the way for the takeover to be legally completed.
read more...»Takeover insights: Kraft & Cadbury - The Story in Video Clips
The Kraft Foods hostile bid for Cadbury received extensive coverage in the media and many of the issues and well covered in this series of short news clips which help tell the story of the deal. Plenty in here for students, including issues around takeover pricing, strategic rationale, the impact of the deal on shareholders and other stakeholders.
read more...»Takeover insights: Kraft & Cadbury - Behind the Scenes of the Bid Defence
This is a simply wonderful video that was produced by the bid defence team at Cadbury to record the process of Kraft’s hostile bid for Cadbury between August 2009 and January 2010. Although ultimately their efforts were unsuccessful, it shows just how much effort is put into mounting a bid defence. Some great clips and interviews too with the people involved at the end. Highly recommended.
Ten minutes long, but packed with insights into the takeover process. At the time of posting this blog entry, the video has only been seen about 50 times on YouTube - it ought to become a classic for business teachers and students…
read more...»Tata and the rise of Jaguar Land Rover
The Tata takeover of Jaguar Land Rover (“JLR”) in 2008 is one of our five “must research” deals for the AQA BUSS4 research theme in 2012. And this recent article provides students with some compelling evidence about how successful the takeover has been for Tata, the private Indian conglomerate that is now the UK’s largest manufacturer. The Telegraph reports that JLR made record pre-tax profits of £559m in the final three months of 2011 as demand for its premium cars soared in Asia. This follows on from JLR’s record profits of £1.1bn in 2010.
read more...»Takeover insights: Kraft & Cadbury - Justifying the Deal
This 10 minute interview in Autumn 2010 by Bloomberg with Kraft Foods CEO Irene Rosenfeld provides some useful perspectives on the strategic rationale behind the Kraft takeover of Cadbury. Obviously presented with a US business audience in mind, but still hugely useful for A2 business students (particularly AQA BUSS4) none the less…
read more...»Video starter - Inside the iPad factory
The first time that any reporters have been allowed inside the iPad factory in China - and what an insight! This clip has it all for superb business studies lesson starter. Technology in production of course; but much more interesting is the issue of people management. Thought-provoking…
read more...»Bullet point 5 and stakeholders again
Competitors and customers are both stakeholders, and can both be significantly impacted by a takeover or merger. Sir Richard Branson can always be relied upon to have a comment to make about anything that British Airways do, and he doesn’t let us down here as Virgin Atlantic have lodged a formal complaint on the proposed merger between IAG (owners of BA) and BMI to the European Commission.
Virgin has said passengers would be left with a “choice of one” on flights between Aberdeen and Edinburgh and Heathrow. There is some great data in this article about the complaint from both sides, about Virgin’s claims of reduction in services and increase in prices for passengers which are likely to result from the merger, and BA’s counter-claims about increases in viability of services between Heathrow and Scotland. There is clear reference here to bullet point 6 - the reasons why governments might support or intervene in takeovers and mergers - as well as Sir Richard calls on “regulatory authorities, in the UK as well as in Europe, give this merger the fullest possible scrutiny and ensure it is stopped.” Definitely one to add to the BUSS4 resources!
BUSS4 - Bullet point 5 the impact on stakeholders
Bullet Point 5 for the research tasks asks students to examine the impact on, and reaction of, stakeholders to takeovers and mergers. Worth having a quick look at today’s news story about Billabong who have been struggling in the consumer downturn. This time last year their shares were trading at 9Australian dollars. However recently they have warned that their revenues are down by as much as 25% for the first half of the year, and that their debt has been increasing - think about the impact on ratios such as ROCE and gearing, and shares had fallen to A$1.79 - not good for shareholders as a stakeholder group.
read more...»Takeovers and Mergers - the Language of M&A
Students researching takeovers and mergers will come across some terminology which might not be familiar to them. Here are some key terms which are worth understanding and using when writing about M&A:
read more...»AQA BUSS4 CPD Briefing Days in 2012
The session programme, dates, locations for our popular AQA BUSS4 CPD briefings in 2012 are shown below. Please note that the first London date is now sold out.
AQA BUSS4 Section A Briefing 2012
LONDON (A) - Monday 27 February 2012: sold out
BIRMINGHAM - Tuesday 28 February 2012
LEEDS - Wednesday 29 February 2012
MANCHESTER - Thursday 1 March 2012
NEWCASTLE - Tuesday 6 March 2012
LONDON (B) - Wednesday 7 March 2012
Bookings can be made using this online form, or by downloading this printable booking form
read more...»M&A - It’s time to merge breakfast cereals with some crisps…
A new takeover has been announced this morning and its one that many students researching takeovers and mergers might want to use a topical case study. For many, the products involved will be close to their hearts…
read more...»The Strategic Challenges Facing International Airlines Group - Interview with Willie Walsh
A superb interview here absolutely packed with relevant topics for all A2 business students. Willie Walsh, CEO of IAG (the merged firm that brought together British Airways and Iberia) provides a wide-ranging overview of the strategic issues facing IAG and the airline industry. He talks at length about the strategic rationale for the BA/Iberia merger and the benefits that the merger (as part of a broader process of airline industry consolidation) is starting to generate.
This interview is perfect for students preparing for AQA BUSS4 2012 on Takeovers and Mergers. Take a look at the section starting at about 5 mins 45 seconds, where Walsh talks about the difference between mergers and acquisitions.
Walsh also explains his view on what is meant by leadership in business and explains something about what is involved in being a CEO. He talks about the need to address stakeholder concerns.
BUSS4 gold dust!
read more...»For sale - three sixth form colleges
Its not every day that someone gets the chance to buy three sixth form colleges. But, there appears to be exactly such an opportunity according to sources at EducationInvestor. So, how much are they worth?
read more...»M&A: 8 ways to make a success of a takeover
Firms that pursue takeovers should look to create value, not headlines. That’s one of the lessons I’ve picked up from some analysis of successful takeover strategies listed in the 2010 KPMG survey of global M&A. Here is a brief summary of their recommendations for approaches which are more likely to result in a takeover or merger..
read more...»Q&A: What are synergies in takeovers and mergers?
Look at any major takeover or merger in the news and you’ll come across the concept of synergies….
read more...»Insights on takeovers and mergers from KPMG’s 2011 global survey
I’ve spent a day reading through a detailed analysis of global takeover and merger evidence (“M&A”) written by accountants KPMG in 2011. The report is both comprehensive and complex. However, it contains some useful insights for students and teachers researching the key strategic issues raised by M&A. I have highlighted and summarised some of the key findings below.
read more...»BUSS4 Research Theme - Merger and Takeover Egg Heads
I often find that one of the key challenges with the AQA BUSS4 research theme is finding ways to engage the students with the material in lessons and keeping them motivated and interested in the theme until the Summer.
With this in mind, I will be blogging about some strategies that I have successfully used in the past to engage the students and applying them to the new theme: take-overs and mergers.
read more...»Takeovers - the search for cost synergies
Students researching the topic of takeovers and mergers will come across several unfamiliar terms. One of the most important for them to understand is “synergy” and we’ll write in more detail in subsequent blog entries about what these are. However, here is a useful piece of research which indicates the potential and significance of the most common kind of synergy - “cost synergies”.
read more...»Private equity buyouts - Sunday Times supplement
Private Equity hasn’t really featured very strongly in the Business Studies syllabus before, but may come more to the fore this year in the study of mergers and takeovers. A supplement in yesterday’s Sunday Times which examines ‘private equity backed firms with the fastest growing profits’ is worth getting hold of, as it gives some help on the role of private equity in the M&A market.
read more...»Takeovers in the UK - the long-term trend
I’ve been delving into the datasets on the ONS site to pick up some evidence about the scale of takeovers and mergers involving UK businesses. Having worked in M&A during the 1990’s and early 2000’s, I remember the various short-term peaks and troughs of activity that the takeover market seemed to go through. However, I wanted to get a better sense of longer-term trends. Here’s what I found.
read more...»Glenstrata - Glencore proposes merger with Xstrata
Yesterday morning’s business news has been dominated by the proposed merger of Glencore and Xstrata. Glencore’s 34% holding of Xstrata shares had made a third party approach for Xstrata very difficult if not impossible.
read more...»Cadbury’s Law - Should UK Firms be Protected from Takeover?
Back in 2010, the effect of the Kraft takeover of Cadbury’s brought business into the realms of politics as the unhappiness felt by some stakeholders spilled directly into the UK’s General Election.
One proposed response from the Labour Party was the so-called Cadbury’s Law, whereby new legislation would attempt to protect UK firms from takeover by foreign companies. Was this a good idea?
read more...»PEST - IAG and BMI acquisition
International Airlines Group or BA and Iberia are trying to acquire BMI from Lufthansa.
A move which would allow IAG would gain c. 56 additional take-off and landing slots at Heathrow. Lufthansa had bought up most of BMI’s shares in 2008 but has failed to prevent the group losing money.
Mastering the art of merger integration
As the BUSS4 research topic reaches the students it is useful to be able to steer them towards something to get the process started. Finding something they can do alongside other work should help to motivate them as they feel their way into the topic.
read more...»Integration, integration, integration
HP is an example of a firm which is struggling to integrate acquisitions, and the perils of diversification.
BUSS4 research - some initial ideas
The brief for the BUSS4 research task makes the point that “You are strongly recommended to compare and contrast a number of different takeovers and mergers.” There is a huge amount of news reporting on this topic; in addition to the Guardian hub reported by Miss C Wilkin’s blog below, both FT.com and Reuters have link pages which will take you to myriad of reports about Mergers and Acquisitions - more information that your students could ever need, and which they will need some help to negotiate.
It is early days at the moment to get the students too far into the bullet points, but if they want to get going on some of the issues that might be involved, here is my initial list of some key news stories that could give a start point:
read more...»Starbucks growth - three out of four ain’t bad!
I think the song goes something like that….Starbucks has been very popular in this blog lately with a number of posts across different topics. It seems to be all good news at the moment as they pursue a number of different strategies for achieving growth. And I used this video clip to get my students to identify three out of the four main ways of growing a business.
read more...»Schultz on Leadership, Love and the Competitive Advantage of Culture
We know that the BUSS4 is a big fan of the Apple and Steve Jobs - and with good reason. As our BUSS4 Topic Tracker indicates, a previous essay question (Jan 2010) used the example of Steve Jobs to ask students to evaluate how easy it is for a Chief Executive to change a struggling business into a more successful one.
Steve Jobs shares much in common with another well-known entrepreneur and CEO - Howard Schultz (Starbucks). Both men founded, left and then returned to lead a turnaround of their respective businesses. Both have taken on the challenge of taking a business idea through rapid growth and then also manage a global brand in a much more uncertain external environment.
Might Howard Schultz feature in a future AQA BUSS4 essay choice? Its certainly possible and this article from Ernst & Young ought to be essential reading for any A2 business student who wants to build their understanding of Schultz and his leadership style and business strategy for Starbucks.
read more...»CSR - Growing public support for responsible capitalism
This is a useful new survey, particularly for students who need to include some topical research evidence for exam questions on CSR.
read more...»Great product, bad management?
At first glance, Olympus is a market leader in the endoscope market, miniature cameras used in micro surgery and engineering inspections.
