Title: Turbulent Skies ? A Case Study of SAS Braathens Date of seminar: 1st June 2006. Course: BUS 809. Master Thesis in International Marketing & Brand Management, 15 ECTS-credits. Authors: Jørgen Fensgård and Christian Larsen.

Mergers and acquisitions are common phenomenon in today´s society in order to increase shareholder value. Two years ago a fusion of Sweden´s two largest companies in the industry of real estate took place and even though three out of four Mergers and acquisitions financially fail this certain case turned out highly successful. The aim of this thesis is to examine how the organizational structure and the management control have been designed and characterized the organizational performance and furthermore what are the success factors of the integration. By studying an acquisition and its potential effects on organizational structure and management control parallel to a model that describes the best practice guidelines for managers to successfully deliver value from their acquisitions, it can be shown that an acquisition has direct effects both on the acquirer and the acquired company and thus the new organizational structure. The main results, thus, is that through active leadership, increased specialization, and more decentralized and thus efficient management control a new organization has emerged consisting of the best features of two separate worlds..

Mergers and acquisitions are a phenomenon which can occur for a variety of reasons. It may for example be that the organizations want to gain larger market shares or to complement and learn from each other and thus become more competitive. After the completion of an acquisition or merger, a process is initiated to create an affiliation between the two companies' employees. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is something that management can do to make the integration process as efficient as possible. The empirical research in this paper consisted of interviews and surveys with respondents from two accounting firms that recently completed a merger.

Background: The dependency on knowledge and competence today is more critical than earlier. Today, companies need to put more effort into identifying and filling knowledge gaps, which can be achieved through Mergers and acquisitions. It is important that the companies succeed in coordinating their operations after this process of change. Out of a theoretical point of view it can be argued that companies need to balance between different coordination mechanisms that result in standardized and flexible coordination respectively. Purpose: The purpose of this Master Thesis is, in the context of a merger, to investigate and analyze which coordination mechanisms that are used in knowledge-intensive companies, how these coordination mechanisms are combined and what explains the chosen combination.

There is an increase of financial integration, which can be seen in recent Mergers of banks, financial institutions etc. in the European Union especially in the Nordic countries. However there are some weaknesses in providing consumers cross border services in the sector of banking, such as cross border bank account transfer of payments. The existing transaction costs do not encourage cross border services. Nevertheless a customer of a global or European bank can anticipate to be treated the same way in all of its branch offices inside the EU countries.

Lot of Mergers are not successful, due to several reasons and one reason can be found within the organization. Since organizations consists of people, who are involved in the merger, the importance of cultural aspects must be stressed. Six months before this essay, Carlsberg Sverige AB formed through the merger of Pripps and Falcon. These two companies are in the start up process of the merger, which is the focus of this essay. The awarness of differences and similarities is crucial for the merger.

DefinitionerInitial public offering (IPO)Den första försäljningen av ett företags aktier på den publika marknaden.AvnoteringHändelsen då ett börsbolags aktie tas bort från marknaden.Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX)Ett omfattande och för ämnet väl undersökt amerikanskt regelverk.Private Equity (PE)Aktiekapital som inte är börsnoterat, investerare som investerar direkt i privata bolag eller köper ut publika bolag från börsen.International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS)Internationella regler som styr rapporteringen av olika typer av transaktioner och händelser.Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)Förvärv och sammanslagningar av bolag.Definitioner hämtade från http://www.nasdaq.com/investing/glossary/.

Background: Mergers have been increasing during the latter part of the 1990s. In the Nordic region many previously national companies have joined their forces to create a new Nordic company. This will lead to many challenges when the companies are integrated.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the integration phase. Our goal is to study the integration of Cloetta Fazer and learn how the company can handle the two types of integration. Procedure: To be able to prove our assumptions, that were made on the basis of literature, we have collected empirical material by interviewing eight managers at Cloetta Fazer.

Fusioner av myndigheter har blivit ett allt mer vanligt inslag i Europa och innefattar bland annat samgåenden mellan starka universitet och mindre högskolor. Anledningen till fusionerna är att skapa kvalitet i utbildningen, framförallt hos den mindre högskolan. Dock finns det aspekter som talar emot sammanslagningar då de kan skapa negativa effekter, främst på grund av kulturskillnader mellan de samgående myndigheterna.Förändringar är något som uppstår frekvent i organisationer och något som då påverkas i stor utsträckning är organisationskulturen. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur organisationskulturer förväntas bli påverkade i samband med en fusion. Fokus ligger på de kulturella skillnader som finns mellan samgående myndigheter, där den ena organisationen är större och har mer inflytande än den andra.I teoridelen av uppsatsen behandlas förändringar i organisationen, där människan har en huvudroll för utfallet av fusionen.

During the last 20 years, the Swedish health care system has faced major changes. One of them is the increasing pressure to generate economic profit due to private businesses entering the market. Health care units are forced to make some structural changes in order to become effective and efficient. As a result merger and acquisitions has become a part of the health care sector, and seems to be an increasing phenomenon. Mergers and acquisitions have mainly been studied in the industry.

This study aims to build a deeper understanding of how differences in identities and communication can affect the possibilities of achieving a successful merger between companies from different type of industries. Our study is of qualitative nature and looks into the specific merger between Företagshälsovården AB and Managementkonsulterna AB. The study builds upon 16 semi structured interviews which are carried out with employees from both parts of the organization and with management personnel. Firstly our study shows that the different identities existing within the different parts of the organization, highly affect the integration process after a merger. Secondly we show that the level of communication transmitted from the management, but also between the different parts of the organization, affects the possibilities of creating a successful merger.

Syftet är att analysera integrationen i förvärvsprocessen mellan Pernod Ricard och Vin&Sprit genom att göra en fallstudie för att se vilka förutsättningar de har för att lyckas.Undersökningen är en fallstudie och har en kvalitativ ansats. Metoden i denna uppsats kommer att bestå av intervjuer och skriftliga källor. Till största delen används primärdata men även sekundärdata kommer att förekomma.Erfarenhet och tidigare kunskap om internationella förvärv spelar en stor roll vid internationella förvärvsprocesser. Kulturella skillnader verkar inte spela en så stor roll som det ofta sägs. En decentraliserad affärsmodell kan dock förhindra att de eventuella kulturella skillnader som finns inte påverkar förvärvsprocessen negativt.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how a valuation of a company preceding an acquisition can be affected by the fact that a strong brand is attached to the target company. Techniques to value a company and theories of brands are well developed, but the link between them is partially missing even though the needs to value brands have increased. A case study of five Swedish acquisitions is conducted to identify possible complicating and simplifying factors and how these are handled in the context of a valuation of an acquired company with a strong brand. Important findings are that a decreased volatility of future earnings can lead to more accurate prognoses and valuations due to the existence of a strong brand. A strong brand can, on the other hand, also make the valuation of the target company more difficult due to the fact that it is a subjective asset which increases the overall risk of the company.

De höga beloppen och den växande populariteten associerade med företagsförvärv har lett till många försök inom forskningen att förutsäga vilka företag som blir förvärvade. Denna studie ämnar undersöka förvärvsmarknaden på Nasdaq OMX Nordic under tidsperioden 2002-2011. Syftet är att studera om marknadsvärdering, finansiella karaktärsdrag samt ägarstruktur påverkar sannolikheten att företag blir förvärvade. Populationen utgörs av 81 förvärvade företag under den studerade tidsperioden samt en kontrollgrupp av samma antal. Resultaten visar att marknadsvärdering och finansiella karaktärsdrag inte skiljer sig mellan förvärvade och icke-förvärvade företag och därför inte kan användas som instrument för förutsägelse av förvärvssannolikhet.

Sammanfattning Syfte Vårt syfte med uppsatsen är att beskriva den praxis som har utkristalliserats i ett urval av företag i samband med due diligence. Med utgångspunkt i beskrivningen är syftet sedan att utvärdera huruvida den finansiella due diligencen skapar ett mervärde för köparen jämfört med om han enbart skulle förlita sig på den externa redovisningen. Med mervärde avses här att nyttan av en due diligence är större än kostnaden för en due diligence. Metod Vår uppsats bygger på en kvalitativ undersökning där vi intervjuat fyra konsultbyråer och två företag som är frekventa köpare av due diligence tjänster. Intervjuerna kompletteras med litteraturstudier inom området.