ABSTRACT
High levels of merger and acquisition activity 2 since the late 1980s have been characterised as the fourth wave’ affecting developed economies following earlier waves’, first at the turn of the century, then in the 1920s and early 1930s and later in the 1960s (see Sachwald 1994). These earlier ‘waves’ were, however, largely associated with the USA and the UK. Indeed, mergers and acquisitions have been described as a distinctively Anglo-Saxon phenomenon’ (Bishop and Kay 1993, p. 3) and they have played a less significant role in shaping the commercial structure of other national economies. Nevertheless, this situation is changing and the impacts of the fourth ‘wave’ have certainly been felt in other European countries and in Japan (Walter 1994). Another important difference evident in recent events is the greater importance of cross-border deals relative to transactions conceived and implemented at the national scale (see Cooke 1988; UNCTC 1989; Waverman 1991; Hamill 1994; Economist Intelligence Unit 1996). The rise in cross-border transactions is linked to various dimensions of change associated with ‘globalisation’, including regional economic integration. This chapter describes recent trends in merger/acquisition activity in the EU, with particular reference to cross-border deals. The factors encouraging this activity are reviewed before examining the implications for various strands of public policy, notably relating to regional development and the cohesion agenda.
