First Draft for paragraph
Team Project Topic:
How does business negotiation work in the process of enterprise merger and acquisition among different businesses?
Team Project Paragraph:
We will explore the key lessons of negotiation in the process of enterprise merger and acquisition among different businesses nowadays. We will research and select the most representative examples/case studies (e.g. Amazon), and also put an emphasis on the process of their negotiation along with the ‘Do’s and Don’ts’. We will identify and analyze the negotiation techniques/methods used by businesses that assisted them to obtain the maximum benefits on both sides. Both qualitative and quantitative data will be collected to support our arguments. One of us will explore the key practices. One of us will find and analyze a successful example. One of us will find and analyze an unsuccessful example. One of us will end with a summary. We hope to find out how skilled and appropriate use of negotiation techniques can help one company to acquire or merge with their target company.
Professor’s feedback:
You’ve chosen a rich, relevant topic about negotiations where more money is involved than most others.
The only suggestion I have is this: telling two different merger cases is a valuable but limited way to learn about negotiation, only because each case often has unique features. To do better, we need something more.
For example, when Disney bought LucasFilms, George Lucas seemed to be psychologically struggling to let go of his life’s work, and Disney had a reputation for being an unreliable negotiator, so the two sides ended up feeling very unhappy with each other. But it’s hard to draw lessons from that story alone.
So I would suggest that one of you learn about merger negotiations in general and that the other two each pick a case that illustrates basic lessons.
For example, merger talks can go badly when CEOs get so personally involved that they forget about the shareholders. This happened in the famous RJR Nabisco acquisition, where the CEO, Johnson, treated the company as his personal credit card and drove others crazy. Knowing this danger, the LucasFilms/Disney case might make more sense. (Not that George Lucas was like Johnson- just that in each case, the CEO’s personality mattered a lot.)
Another example of a general lesson: figuring out what the ‘right’ price is for a merger or acquisition can be quite difficult- there are many ways to value a company, which makes it hard to know when an offer is fair. Law, markets, negotiating ability, numbers all shape the answer.
Here’s another example of a general lesson- most mergers go badly. Studies find most turn out to be bad ideas, which may be a failure of negotiation.
I do NOT suggest you explore all or any of these lessons. I offer them as examples of the kind of basic background learning you may want to do. Then any cases you share will help us all learn something.
Please use this case as example for the topic and rewrite the paragraph: https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/dealmaking-daily/top-ten-business-deals-of-2013-american-airlines-u-s-airways/