Mergers, Acquisitions, and Other Restructuring Activities, 6th Edition

Chapter 1

Introduction to Mergers and Acquisitions

If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.

—Lao Tze

Inside M&A: dell moves into information technology services

Dell Computer's growing dependence on the sale of personal computers and peripherals left it vulnerable to economic downturns. Profits had dropped more than 22% since the start of the global recession in early 2008 as business spending on information technology was cut sharply. Dell dropped from number 1 to number 3 in terms of market share, as measured by personal computer unit sales, behind lower-cost rivals Hewlett-Packard and Acer. Major competitors such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard were less vulnerable to economic downturns ...