Cross Border Mergers And Acquisitions, Beware Of Economic Security Traps

Even in the "prime time" of cross-border mergers and acquisitions, the outstanding entrepreneurs who have moved and will take action will not only have a unique strategic vision, but also need to be cautious and cautious about all kinds of potential traps.

For a long time, Chinese enterprises at the bottom of the smile curve have been playing the role of "world processing workshop", with little investment in R & D and lack of core technology accumulation. Acquiring core technology through mergers and acquisitions has become a driving force for Chinese enterprises to go to sea.

However, the surface tempting "technology cake" is likely to be "cake hard to satisfy hunger". It is possible that the technology that the enterprise sees is not necessarily the technology bought by the enterprise, and the technical department purchased is not necessarily the technology that can bring real benefits.

In 2004, the acquisition of Thomson by TCL Group paid a one billion price loss, but did not get Thomson's most profitable picture tube technology. It was almost laughed at by Europe's leading financial media.

2001 Zhejiang HOLLEY Group acquired PHILPS's CDMA project in the United States in the year of 2001. However, due to the cross agreement and authorization agreement between PHILPS and Qualcomm, the HOLLEY's desire to improve its core technology through mergers and acquisitions failed.

Chinese enterprises have only a few decades of market experience. The grasp of future technological trends and the protection of intellectual property rights are still at a relatively shallow level. In overseas mergers and acquisitions, we must be vigilant for the above "technology traps".

In order to protect the core technology of Chinese enterprises, the host countries always obstruct the M & A intentions of M & A enterprises for various reasons.

Among them, national economic security and antitrust are often the main pretexts.

The eventual failure of the merger and acquisition of Unocal Corp by PetroChina is directly related to the acquisition of "national economic security" cards by competitors.

Under the financial crisis, European and American governments and enterprises are facing financial difficulties, which seems to have improved the attitude of China's M & A enterprises.

However, entrepreneurs who are going to sea mergers and acquisitions must realize that enterprises in Europe and the United States will not easily give up competitive technology and brand unless they have to do so. The government must also restrict and avoid the outflow of high-quality assets through various rules. Under the loose legal and institutional framework, the implementation of cross-border M & A will be more complicated than expected, especially in some specific technical problems in M & a regulation, especially in advance.

Xu Qiyun, editor in chief: