Aol And Time Warner Merger Analysis

Two unsuccessful mergers/acquisitions were Bank of America’s acquisition of Countrywide and the AOL and Time Warner merger. Bank of America made the decision to acquire Countrywide at what was considered a low price of $2.5 billion dollars. AOL and Time Warner merged their company together as “AOL would own 55 percent of the new company and Time Warner, 45 percent. But the new board would have an equal number of AOL and Time Warner directors” (Arango, 2010, para. 25). Both of these deals are considered failures, and many in business consider the AOL and Time Warner deal to have been one of the worst deals ever because of the fallout. The Bank of America acquisition of Countrywide was motivated by Bank of America’s need to grow their business. …show more content…
The vision statement can act like a blueprint for how company should act and strive for the future. Two companies that merge must be able to agree upon a vision statement that can take both companies and combine them into one company under a shared vision. Without being able to have a shared vision, two companies in a merger would still be more like singular companies that cannot work well together. A vision statement can be important for any business, but in the case of a merger, a can act as the glue that can help bring the two companies together. For instance, it seems that the AOL and Time Warner merger did not have a vision statement that both companies’ employees felt strongly about. Comparing the successful merger between Sage and State of the Art to the unsuccessful AOL and Time Warner shows that there were some correct steps taken by the one that might have been helpful to the other. The first action that Sage and State of the Art made that could have made a difference in the AOL and Time Warner mergeris the amount of time that the companies took to become familiar with the overall company, and not just the financials. They understood the way each company was being operated, their views for the future and the culture which made the merger easier to …show more content…
Sage and State of the Art had employees go from each office to work in the other offices as a way to ensure that they would be able to remotely supervise the US-based State of the Art. The AOL and Time Warner merger had problems because the staff was not able to work well together. In this merger, AOL was pointed out as the crown jewel, and the Time Warner employees felt that they were getting the short end of the stick in the merger. Taking the time to intermingle the staff between the two companies may have had a more positive effect on the