A preliminary analysis of mergers and acquisitions by Microsoft from 1992 to 2016: a resource and competence perspective

Ali Jose Lopez Giron and Pierre Vialle (pierre.vialle@imt-bs.eu)
Additional contact information
Ali Jose Lopez Giron: IMT-BS - MMS - Département Management, Marketing et Stratégie - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris]
Pierre Vialle: IMT-BS - MMS - Département Management, Marketing et Stratégie - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], LITEM - Laboratoire en Innovation, Technologies, Economie et Management (EA 7363) - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Merger and acquisitions (M&A) have been a frequently used growth mode in the ICT Industry during the last two decades. They did so for several reasons, such as expanding the scale and scope of their business or acquire new capabilities Microsoft is highly representative of those ICT firms who have intensively relied on M&A for growth. Microsoft since its foundation has acquired around 200 companies; in average 6 companies per year and has targeted different sectors of the ICT business. Up to the authors' knowledge, no exhaustive analysis of the acquisitions made by Microsoft over a long period has been made, in particular with a focus on Resources and Competence. In this paper, we aim at identifying the patterns behind the acquisition of numerous companies made by Microsoft since 1992, in terms of end-product, type of business, core product, resource and competences. We put a particular emphasis on the resource and competence acquired through these deals. By document research, we have been able to collect relevant information on 178 acquisitions between 1992 and 2016. In this paper, we present the methodology we have followed and some preliminary results. We conclude by discussing possible research extensions based on the current research.

Keywords: A; Competence; Merger and acquisitions; M&; Microsoft; Resource; Strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-07-30
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-02374209v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in 28th European Regional Conference of the International Telecommunications Society (ITS): "Competition and Regulation in the Information Age", Jul 2017, Passau, Germany

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-02374209v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02374209

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD (hal@ccsd.cnrs.fr).