Mergers and Acquisition by Indian Firms

Mergers and acquisition (M&A) has been a dominant form of firm growth strategy and a very potent tool of securing strategic growth in business landscape. However, M&As have generally been attributed with a significant amount of failure and value destruction. The author in this exploratory research undertook 24 in-depth interviews using a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire with M&A experts to understand the reasons for value creation and destruction in Indian M&A context. The data was content analyzed for thematic analysis. The results indicated in the Indian context, M&A initiatives provided quick market growth, access to strategic resources, and such benefits. While M&A failures occurred because of the lack of understanding on decision criteria regarding whether to from SA or do a M&A, strategic clarity, cultural insensitivity, lack of due diligence, and poor M&A post management capabilities.