Mergers and acquisitions are accelerating with a rapidly evolving economy. This strategy is a way for your business to adapt and evolve with the trends.
You can gain access to new markets or regions, acquire new technology and skillsets, or gain competitive advantages by opting for this strategy. Yet, if you’ve never considered the process before, it’s wise to become clued up on how you can benefit from a business merger and acquisition.
In this article, we’ll explain how you can expand your business using a merger and acquisition. And after you read it, you should be closer to knowing whether it makes sense for your business strategy.
Types of Mergers and Acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions are divided into two categories: strategic and financial.
Financial mergers and acquisitions are pursued for monetary reasons, as the term implies. They are often used to obtain immediate cash or are used for investment purposes.
However, we’re not going to focus on this category. Instead, we want to look at the option which concerns business expansion and growth.
And, of course, all this information will provide you will valuable selling points if you are selling a business.
Business Expansion and Growth Strategy
A strategic merger and acquisition will deal with distinct types of company issues.
For example, maybe you want to acquire a company to introduce a new product line and expand your facilities. Or it could be that you want to enter a new market or need expertise and intellectual property.
A strategic merger or acquisition for a professional services business is frequently about establishing more credibility. It can also add extra intellectual prowess or shift the way your company is perceived in a specific market.
The simple truth is that a strategic merger or acquisition generally benefits both parties involved. Both companies have their strengths and weaknesses, but when merged, they complement each other.
It’s all about the value that another company can give to yours and vice versa.
How Do Mergers and Acquisitions Help You Grow?
For example, a company may want to merge or acquire another. They might do this because they have specific qualifications and contracts to help them take a giant leap up in the industry.
If that company were to gain these qualifications and contracts alone, it might be a laborious and wasteful use of resources and capital.
Another simple way of thinking about it is by looking at team sports.
Take any soccer team, for example. They have eleven set positions in play, and each player in their position has specific duties and expectations put upon them.
However, no team is perfect. But what managers can do is enhance each position by acquiring new players showing their worth on another team. They may do this, especially when they lack in certain areas, like in their defensive positions, for instance.
When their current players cannot achieve that next level, they bring new talent in. And it’s pretty much the same principle in play for companies merging with or acquiring others.
Furthermore, a manager may buy a new player to enhance the team’s perceptions and credibility, just like in business.
When to Consider a Merger or Acquisition?
In a variety of instances, mergers and acquisitions make total sense.
So now, let’s take a look at four different ways of how mergers and acquisitions can work for your growth strategy. And bear in mind, in some cases, these benefits can cross over and combine to work for you.
When You Need Talent and Intellectual Property
Many businesses are experiencing a severe scarcity of qualified professionals. The fields of cybersecurity, engineering, and accounting are a few that spring to mind.
You can consider intellectual property as the new money of modern business. It was once hidden and guarded, but today companies actively acquire it and sell it.
For many firms, buying a company and its intellectual property is the quickest way to market dominance. Or, at the very least, it can act as a hurdle to competitors.
Fill Critical Gaps in Your Operations and Services
In a rapidly evolving economic landscape, you can become left behind by not adapting quickly enough.
When the market changes, to remain profitable, you might need to acquire new areas of technical knowledge and other skills in general.
For example, following 9/11, the defense and security industry lacked the necessary capabilities to meet quickly changing government demands.
Organizations immediately understood they would be left behind without the skills and experience to fulfill the new security need. Firms with the right knowledge and client lists found themselves strategically valued. And, became sought-after acquisition targets all of a sudden.
You Can Leverage Synergies
If done as part of a well-thought-out growth strategy, a strategic merger can result in synergies that benefit both the acquirer and the acquired.
Cost and revenue synergies are the two most common types of merger and acquisition synergies.
Cost synergies are the process of reducing costs by combining overlapping operations or resources into a single entity. However, cost synergies might also result in increased purchasing and negotiation strength because of the bigger combined budget.
Revenue synergies shift the competitive power balance. This allows them to modify market dynamics, raise pricing and sell more items. Revenue synergies can help businesses make more money in various ways, including competition reduction and the opening of new territories.
You Can Add a New Business Model
If you’re thinking about developing and testing a new business model, the quickest method to do so is to acquire a company that is currently doing it well. This way, you can avoid making mistakes due to inexperience.
For example, you may have a billable-hours model, but you want to utilize other payment models like subscriptions or fixed fee ones. Rather than attempting to learn these new billing methods, you can just absorb those doing them well into your fold.
Consider Business Merger and Acquisition
There are so many benefits to exploring when it comes to mergers and acquisitions.
If you want to grow your business while saving time and long learning curves, you should consider a business merger and acquisition as a valid option.
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