THE USE OF MERGER AND ACQUISITION AS A GROWTH STRATEGY IN NIGERIAN ORGANIZATIONS

This research takes a look at the adoption of merger and acquisition as a growth strategy in Nigerian organizations. There is no gainsaying the fact that many companies have been having financial problems due to mismanagement and economic meltdown. In order to save such companies from going into liquidation, merger and acquisition can be used to revive such companies if properly adopted. Even though merger and acquisition are always referred to as the same thing, they have some differences. A merger happens when two companies that have something in common such as the same line of production agree to go forward as a single new company rather than remain separately owned and operated. Acquisition on the other hand occurs when one company takes over another and clearly establishes itself as the new owner. This research work highlighted the benefits involved in the adoption of merger and acquisition. This work used two merger and acquisitions that occurred in the 1980’s and two merger and acquisitions that occurred in the 2000’s to analyze how merger and acquisition can be used to increase the profit of an organization. The organizations adopted for this work are the Nigerian Bottling Company, John Holt Plc, United Bank for Africa and Diamond bank.