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This study investigates the patterns of corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&As) involving firms located in the EU25 as well as in the four EFTA countries between 1998 and 2003. Against the background of a reflection on the concept of the firm in economic geography, it uncovers the cross-border balance of M&As across European states and identifies the factors that may explain the levels and patterns of corporate takeovers across Europe. The results indicate that the traditional motives of access to new and core markets, the effects of geographical proximity, and the internalisation of localised capabilities (proxied by a skilled and innovative labour pool) represent the key drivers of European M&As, while institutional factors, such as European integration or language barriers, appear to be less influential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High levels of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) were a characteristic of the global economy in the 1990s. The overall effects of M&As on economic welfare and their spatial implications, however, remain a profoundly neglected topic. Using three standardised indices representing the relative quantity of take-overs in each German Regierungsbezirk , the paper demonstrates that the recent wave of M&As has resulted in a major concentration of firms and economic activity in the main German metropoli. The paper then turns to a study of the flows of M&A transactions. By means of regression analysis, it identifies the main drivers of the geographical concentration of firms to be indicators of the general level of agglomeration (i.e. regional GDP and population) and the concentration of political power in the region. The results also indicate that investment in R&D, the general level of education, or unemployment, when considered in combination with agglomeration indicators, play a negligible role in determining M&A flows. With respect to the geographical distance between a merging or acquiring firm and its target, the results are twofold. While, when considered on its own, distance has a very weak or--depending on cases--insignificant association with the territorial distribution of M&A activity, when estimated in conjunction with agglomeration, proximity appears to play a distinctive role in the geography of M&As in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]