Innovation-based M&A: Technological-Integration Challenges – The Case of Digital-Technology Companies

This research examines the technology-related integration challenges to acquisitions in digital industries and how these challenges can be managed. Historically, companies seeking to increase markets, products or customers have utilized the strategic growth process of mergers and acquisitions. Their motivation was primarily to utilize economies of scale and operational synergies to integrate acquisition targets that were similar in product, market, and customer demographics. The aim of these acquisitions was to scale the acquisition products to its own markets and customers while potentially gaining new markets and customers in the process. For companies in the digital-technology industry, the path to growth in these fast-paced markets is through the acquisition of innovation-based technologies from new and emerging companies to complement their current R&D strategies. The incumbent enterprises look for emerging technology companies as acquisition targets in order to stay ahead of the increasingly fast technology-development lifecycle. The acquisition and integration process for these types of companies present challenges to practitioners that are very different from what has been experienced in the past and will present new research opportunities for scholars researching the related domains.