Merger, Acquisition, and International Strategies



Assignment 4: Merger, Acquisition, and International Strategies

First part: For the corporation that has acquired another company, merged with another company, or been acquired by another company, evaluate the strategy that led to the merger or acquisition to determine whether or not this merger or acquisition was a wise choice. Justify your opinion

On the 31st of December in 1997, Microsoft proudly announced its acquisition of the Hotmail, a free award winning e-mail web-based service. Ever since its acquisition, Hotmail became an essential tool of online information and communication services that Microsoft has to offer to its users, all over the world. It largely includes sites for travel, entertainment, news, shopping, games and many more, (Adler, 1975). Hotmail had a good reputation of being a pioneer of the web e-mail. Hotmail was successful in building a very strong following by offering a high quality e-mail service free of cost and allowing members to access a permanent e-mail address with any other internet connection using a personal computer.

The reason for acquiring Hotmail was to offer the many users of the Microsoft, the very best combination of a premium and free e-mail service. Microsoft has committed itself for making it easier for the users to communicate effectively from any part of the globe, by using the internet services. Microsoft feels proud of the business that it has built and is also very gratified by the feedback of its valued users, who have accepted the technology and the services that Microsoft have to offer, (Benkart, 2009). The idea was to bring in as much innovation as possible by expanding e-mail services for free on the web and bringing new and innovative designs and features in the market, at a faster pace. Apart from the fact that it offers the users to avail free e-mail services, it also allows the users of the MSN to check their e-mails through the Hotmail accounts from any place.

This acquisition was a wise choice made by the Microsoft Corporation. It was wise in a sense that Microsoft is a reputable name in the market. Hotmail is one of the most widely used e-mail interfaces in the world, with users in millions. This was a very successful strategic decision that led Microsoft to maintain its position as one of the best internet services providers in the world. Through the acquisition, Microsoft brought about a lot of innovative changes in the way how users use e-mails. This acquisition turned out to be a huge success among the users of the Microsoft. It was also a huge success in terms of finance. Microsoft has gone too far now, acquiring various different social media interfaces and integrating with the communication gadgets such as mobile phones.

The idea behind all these is to gain as much market share as it could, (Berger, 1998). Under the umbrella of Microsoft, there are so many companies that are operating and gaining advantages in turn of good revenues and good brand ...