AUTHOR
Ekstedt, Marianne; Ståhlgren, Carolina

DATE
2000-03-16

DEPARTMENT
Business Administration and Social Sciences / Industrial marketing and e-commerce

SUMMARY
As the globalization phenomenon has led to increased international competition the need for firms to find new competitive strategies has become more of a necessity than an option. In order to survive in the fierce business environment of today, many firms choose to act on the global marketplace. A recent trend has been that Swedish and foreign firms increasingly turn to mergers and acquisitions. To increase the chances of successful acquisitions it is important to acquire an appropriate firm. In the literature the finding and examination of a target acquisition is referred to as due diligence. Considering this the purpose of the thesis is to investigate how Swedish firms organize for and carry out due diligence.

To fulfill the purpose we conducted a qualitative study on four cases, Framfab, Icon Medialab International AB, Nobel Biocare, and Bong Ljungdahl AB. The study is based on established theories, which were tested by conducting four interviews. It reveals differences in the organization of the due diligence team between companies that frequently engage in acquisitions and companies to which acquisitions are a less common occurrence. The most obvious finding is that the IT-consultant companies value “soft” factors more in comparison with the manufacturing companies. Another finding is that the investigated companies do not divide their examination of the target acquisition into different audits as suggested in the literature. Instead, all companies in the study carry out what they refer to as a more businesslike due diligence and in addition to this a financial and a legal due diligence. The study also shows that the investigated companies only refer to due diligence as the examination of one company.

ISSN 1404-5508 / ISRN LTU-SHU-EX--00/059--SE / NR 2000:059