INDUSTRY DYNAMICS IN THE GERMAN MERGER AND ACQUISITIONS MARKET

The recent wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) is not only profoundly altering the structure of businesses, but has also triggered a thorough reshuffling in the location of economic decision-making. This paper explores these changes in Germany over the last decade, with particular attention being paid to industry-specific transformations. In order to identify the logic behind changes in the location of economic decision-making, four factors are analysed across ten different industrial sectors. These determinants include the presence of economies of proximity and agglomeration, the degree of metropolitan interconnectivity (or 'archipelago economies'), the concentration of economic decision-making in large urban metropolitan areas, and the role played by geographical distance in shaping M&As. The results indicate that different industries display significantly different spatial merging behaviours, with economies of proximity, concentration and agglomeration playing a capital, but different role in determining the dynamics of M&As across sectors in Germany. There is also - with the exception of the media industry, as well as information and communication technologies - little sign of geography losing importance in economic transactions. Copyright (c) 2006 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.