Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: internationalisation, integration and European competitiveness
- Part 1 Internationalisation and corporate control
- Part 2 Technological specialisation and international trade
- Part 3 European integration and structural change
- 8 Mergers, acquisitions and the completion of the internal market
- 9 Growth, structural change and real convergence in the EC
- 10 Public services and competitiveness
- 11 Culture and competitiveness
- 12 Industrial policy and international competitiveness: the case of Eastern Europe
- Index
8 - Mergers, acquisitions and the completion of the internal market
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: internationalisation, integration and European competitiveness
- Part 1 Internationalisation and corporate control
- Part 2 Technological specialisation and international trade
- Part 3 European integration and structural change
- 8 Mergers, acquisitions and the completion of the internal market
- 9 Growth, structural change and real convergence in the EC
- 10 Public services and competitiveness
- 11 Culture and competitiveness
- 12 Industrial policy and international competitiveness: the case of Eastern Europe
- Index
Summary
Introduction
The completion of the internal market targeted for 1992 has stimulated considerable interest in the corporate strategies that will be developed by corporations to cope with the demands and opportunities presented by the emerging European economy. Since the publication of the White Paper on completing the internal market (CEC, 1985), the Commission has been enthusiastic about the role of external strategies such as joint venture and merger in stimulating and reinforcing the effective operation of the completed market. Elsewhere (Kay, 1991) we have argued that the Commission's view that 1992 will directly stimulate industrial activity such as joint venture is misplaced. In this chapter we consider the parallel question of merger in the context of 1992 and conclude that there is serious cause for concern that the acceleration of the rate of cross-frontier merger activity may be to the detriment of the completed market and may reduce both competition and efficiency.
In this chapter we shall argue that the Commission has adopted too permissive an attitude towards European merger and acquisition activity and that there is a real danger that the emerging Europe-wide merger wave may sacrifice some of the gains in productive efficiency and consumer welfare that 1992 is intended to generate. The Commission's policy proposals are dependent on an obsolete theoretical framework, and it recognises but neglects clear and consistent evidence on merger failure.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- European Competitiveness , pp. 161 - 180Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993
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