Why do mergers and acquisitions sometimes fail to produce anticipated results?

Question

A) Cost savings exceed management's wildest expectations.
B) The morale of key employees involved in the corporate combination reaches new highs because they embrace the changes.
C) Gains in competitive capabilities materialize rapidly, resulting in instant synergies.
D) Efforts to mesh corporate cultures meet with unconditional acceptance from organization members.
E) Differences in management styles and operating procedures can prove hard to resolve.

Answer 1

E) Differences in management styles and operating procedures can prove hard to resolve.
Despite many successes, mergers and acquisitions do not always produce the hoped-for outcomes. This is because (1) cost savings may prove smaller than expected, (2) gains in competitive capabilities may take substantially longer to realize or, worse, may never materialize, (3) efforts to mesh the corporate cultures can stall due to formidable resistance from organization members, (4) key employees at the acquired company can quickly become disenchanted and leave, (5) the morale of company personnel who remain can drop to disturbingly low levels because they disagree with newly instituted changes, (6) differences in management styles and operating procedures can prove hard to resolve, and (7) managers appointed to oversee the integration of a newly acquired company can make mistakes in deciding which activities to leave alone and which activities to meld into their own operations and systems.