S/F/42. Mergers & Acquisitions: Interbrew of Belgium & AmBev of Brazil

Mergers have the potential to move companies forward quickly. But more than half of all mergers are essentially financial failures in the sense that the combined entity produces less shareholder value than the two individual pre-merger companies. Many mergers and acquisitions do not deliver the expected cost savings or efficiencies and almost always the culture shock and impact on employees is less than positive. This is particularly significant because employees are a key factor in the financial performance of the surviving company. As a consultant, I have been hired by Belgium's Interbrew, to analyze an opportunity that the company has to take over a Brazilian brewery called AmBev. Analysis consists of the investigation of motives of merger and financial issues for the company.