Framework
Post-acquisition integration styles
The question it answers
Having just bought a company, should the acquirer's leadership absorb, preserve, combine symbiotically or merely hold it, weighing strategic interdependence against target autonomy?
- Origin
- Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991
- Diagram type
- 2×2 matrix
- Level of analysis
- Firm
Diagram
Post-acquisition integration styles
LowNeed for target autonomyHigh
Preservation
High autonomy, low interdependence: leave the target running on its own.
Symbiosis
Both high: two-way learning, gradual change.
Holding
Both low: essentially a financial relationship.
Absorption
Low autonomy, high interdependence: fold the target into the buyer.
LowNeed for strategic interdependenceHigh
Pitfalls
Pitfall
Choosing the style by culture rather than by the kind of value to be transferred.
Sources
References
Listed A–Z by author surname, Harvard style. A source with a DOI links to https://doi.org/…; one without links to its page or says plainly that it has no DOI.
- Haspeslagh, P.C. and Jemison, D.B. (1991) Managing acquisitions: creating value through corporate renewal. New York: Free Press.No DOISource page