Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 87 %, University of Sunderland, course: Applied Research Methods for Business and Management, language: English, abstract: Throughout the last decades, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are achieving increasing importance in the corporate world. There are many motives such as to increase the market power and competitive advantage, to reduce dependence on suppliers, to gain fast access to new market etc. why managers adopting an acquisitions strategy. Nevertheless, many M&As have been unsuccessful in the past due to incompetent managers, poor ethics, inadequate analysis prior the deal, and diversification away from the core business of the company. Therefore, a careful industry, target company, and product portfolio analysis must be made before the deal. The literature provides different frameworks and analytical tools that can be used in the M&A process in order to avoid typical risks. However, because of the uniqueness of each M&A deal, it is important to gain further insights in these transactions in order to provide an appropriate guideline on how to select an optimal M&A target.