Joes Snacks

Statement

Historically, the key factors that management looked at in making acquisition/merger decisions were related to financial advantages and product synergy

In recent year, cultural compatibility has become the primary concern. While a favorable financial statement or product line may be the initial attraction of an acquisition candidate, whether the acquisition actually works seems to have more to do with how well the two organization's cultures match up.

Background info

Company name Invest Austria

Country Austria

Established 1992

Field of activity Investment Management

Number of employees 500

Market position 4 (holds 17% market share)

Task

Your group represents a team of board directors making decisions for the company stated above. You have decided to forward with a M&A deal by buying a relatively small and young company - Wolfram, which has created an innovative software solution that makes it possible to electronically score credit risks for both enterprises and individuals. With the help of this solution you foresee being able to become number one in your market, so it is critical that you succeed with this deal.

The problem is that 3 more companies from different countries are also working to acquire Wolfram. Meanwhile, Wolfram has come forward with an announcement that all four candidates are interesting and they have decided to organize an open tender to take place in France.

Wolfram has also stated that money is not the biggest issue here. As they are very innovative and original in many ways - they don't want to loose their organizational culture which they believe is a key factor of incredible success over the last years.

Company name Wolfram

Country France

Established 2008

Field of activity Intelligent scoring systems

Number of employees 20

Market position -

Your first task as a buyer will be to select (5) critical areas of your organizational culture (see list below) which you want to see Wolfram adapt so that they fit better into your organization. While doing that keep in mind that Wolfram's task will be to select 5 critical parts of the organizational culture that they want to keep after joining you.

After comparing results between all 4 participants of the tender, most probably