An acquisition is a corporate action where a company takes over the ownership stakes of other company in order to gain control and benefit out of it, whereas Mergers are the amalgamation of two or more companies to form one company and gain market share. Some of the biggest business acquisitions and mergers of all time are:
Disney & Pixar, 2006
A successful merger of two companies Disney and Pixar, where both developed and explored further to gain more and more. The success of these companies can be seen in the movies like Toy story and Finding Nemo which were a hit at the box office.
Exxon & Mobil, 1999
This acquisition was a historic deal of $81 billion. Mobil was bought by the most powerful American oil company Exxon which was the second-largest American oil company
Premier Lodge & Travel Inn, 2004
To expand the hotel budget business both the companies merged and became the UK’s biggest budget hotel chain which is now known as Premier Travel Inn. This company boasts around 600 hotels in Dubai and India.
Vodafone & Mannesmann, 2000
One of the biggest deals in history, where Vodafone group Plc acquired Germany’s Mannesmann. This deal was worth $180.95 billion which made the company one of the largest mobile operators in the world.
AOL & Time Warner, 2000
The second largest merger in history, which was a $164 billion deal. The union lasted for around 9 years and with time; Time Warner Inc. rapidly deteriorated AOL Inc. as a self-supporting company.
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Verizon & Vodafone Group (Wireless unit)
The US telecom Verizon paid $130 billion to take over the complete wireless unit of Vodafone. The deal gave the company financial strength for better infrastructure and market share.
Anheuser-Busch & SABMiller, 2015
A $117 billion deal where the two beer companies merged to form a giant, which sold close to one-third of all the beer sold around the world.
AT&T and BellSouth, 2006
In 2006 AT&T announced to acquire Bell south for $86 billion. It helped the company to expand its coverage and spread over the rural areas of US.
Glaxo and SmithKline, 2000
In 2000 Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline merged for a $75 billion deal. Both the rival firms got together, struggled and have now become the world’s biggest drug maker known as GlaxoSmithKline plc.
Royal Dutch & Shell Transport
Both of these companies were working together for a long time which made them merge and sign a deal was worth $75 billion. This merger made the company the second largest publicly traded oil firm in the whole world.
