Reframing Mergers and Acquisitions around Stakeholder Relationships Economic, Political and Social Processes

Among the significant repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic is escalating public questioning of the desirability and sustainability of the market economy and the societal role of business. These concerns are linked to merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, with significant disruptive consequences for stakeholder relationships and their management. This book explores these changes, moving away from the traditional focus on the financial and strategic aspects of M&A and its rational, technocratic approach. Viewing M&A activity as economic, political, and social (EPS) processes, Segal provides a dialectic understanding of stakeholder relationships around M&A activity and challenges the view that M&A activity is static, linear, and predictable. He develops a conceptual framework to enable practitioners, researchers and policymakers to identify, understand and address the stakeholder and management implications of M&A activity. This is applied to four case studies that make explicit how complex stakeholder relationships play out around M&A and how these power dynamics were managed with different balances. Useful for academics, researchers, managers, advisors, investors, analysts, and other stakeholders, this book highlights the need to understand the EPS implications and processes involved around M&A.

1. Introduction 2. Causes and consequences of M&A 3. Economic, political and social implications and processes around M&A 4. Stakeholder approach to M&A 5. Conceptual stakeholder framework around M&A 6. Who are the stakeholders around M&A? 7. Balancing stakeholder relationships around M&A 8. The Tatts-Tabcorp merger process 9. The abandoned United Airlines and US Airways merger 10. Acquisition of Vin & Sprit by Pernod Ricard 11. Collapse of Fortis 12. Conclusion

Simon Segal covers M&A as a journalist/editor/commentator. He was awarded his PhD in 2021 for a thesis titled "Understanding and managing dynamic stakeholder relationships around mergers and acquisitions." He started the Australian bureau of Mergermarket in 2005, was Australia bureau chief and editor of Dealreporter Asia and is currently Editorial Consultant at Dealreporter and a director at Mergermarket Australia. James Guthrie AM is Emeritus Professor of Accounting at Macquarie Business School, Australia. He has published 220 articles in international and national refereed and professional journals and over 50 books or chapters in books. John Dumay is Professor in Accounting and Finance at Macquarie Business School, Australia. He previously worked for over 15 years as an independent business consultant, beginning an academic career in 2008.