Unit 12. CORPORATE ALLIANCES AND ACQUISITION

 

Ex. 1. Key vocabulary: (SB page 116)

 

As business and the world economy become increasingly competitive, more and more companies have to strengthen their operations to remain profitable; companies can ally in a number of ways, including the following;

Joint venture (совместное предприятие), also integration (интеграция): Two or more companies agree to collaborate and jointly invest in a separate business project. This type of deal allows partners to combine their strength in one specific area and develop the effect of synergy.

Merger (слияние ): two companies, often in the same industry, come together to form one company. Companies merge for many reasons, for example, to increase market share and cut costs in certain areas, such as research and development. (E.g. after the merger of automobile giants Renault + Nissan + General Motors the total turnover increased to €250 billion)

Acquisition (поглощение ): One company accumulates enough of another company’s shares to gain control and ownership.

Takeover (рейдерство, захват): A hostile acquisition by buying the shares of a company secretly and unexpectedly, often overnight.

 

• To ally – to unite by treaty, создать союз

• an ally – союзник, • allies (pl)– союзники

• alliance – альянс, союз.

• Synergy: синергия – увеличение доходов и быстрый рост предприятий после объединения, чем те же показатели каждого предприятия до их объединения.

 

 

 

Ex. 2 Discussion. Answer the questions relevant to the topic Alliances and Acquisitions:

(The teacher can correlate the answers with the Teachers Book, page 50)

 

1. What options are open to businesses when they are competing with each other in the same market, if they want to avoid a price war?

2. What is one of the most expensive areas of investment (after salaries) for example, the automobile or the pharmaceutical industries?

3. Can you suggest a way to reduce the high costs of Research and Development?

4. What should a big successful company do if a smaller one produces cheaper and / or better quality products?

5. What advantages can be gained by co-operation with another firm when purchasing raw materials or components? (bulk buying – закупки большими партиями, to get bulk discounts – скидки на оптовые закупки, economies of scale – “эффект масштаба” – экономия от увеличения масштабов производства)

6. How have businessmen in Western Europe reacted to the opening up the East European markets?

7. Can you think of any recent corporate alliances?

8. Have you ever read about a failed merger or corporate alliance, and why did it fail?

 

Ex. 3 Meetings. Fill in the gaps with the offered words. Learn and tell how a meeting should be organized. (Listening, ex2, SB page 122).

•agenda (повестка дня) •consultants •schedule •minutes (протокол) •actions

•participants •discussed •contribute •staff • chairperson •professionals •limit

 

It is generally agreed that successful meetings make successful companies. However, many (1) professionals complain that meetings are often unproductive and too long. Participants with large egos regularly dominate discussions and hours of talking end without any clear result. à Consequently, many companies get help from specialized (2) _______________, who give advice on how to make meetings more effective.

If a meeting is to be productive, it should have a clear and stated purpose that all the (3) _____________ know and understand. You should appoint a (4) ______________ who manages and controls the meeting. You must write an (5) ____________, or list of items to be (6) ___________ and send it to all the people concerned. They should prepare for the meeting and come to it with ideas to (7) ____________.

You have to attach a time (8) ____________ to each point, otherwise there is a risk that some of items will not be dealt with for lack of time.

You ought to limit the meeting to 90 minutes. If not, you have to (9) ___________ breaks into the agenda.

You don’t need to invite all the important members to every meeting, but you should send other senior (10) ______________ members the (11) ______________, or summery of what was discussed.

You don’t have to include everything that was said at the meeting. However, you need to include actions, decided upon at the meeting. Lastly, the minutes should be sent within 24 hours. It is essential to keep the meeting results and future (12) _______________ clear to everyone’s mind.

 

 

Ex. 4. ROLE –PLAY. In groups: Read the situation and the agenda carefully. Think over you position.

Are you for or against? Then prepare how you will express your opinions and suggestions at the meeting. Be prepared to agree and disagree with the other participants.

 

Situation:

Your company is negotiating an alliance with a company, which insists that the employees only work 35 hours per week. If your company goes ahead with the alliance, the employees will not have to take a salary cut – but they will not be allowed to work overtime. Ordinary workers, who often work overtime to earn extra money, will therefore lose some of their earning potential. Executives in the company who are not paid overtime will be less concerned about that, but 35-hour week will have other consequences for them. If they don’t have enough time to complete their projects, they will have to share power and control with new employees who will need to be brought in to meet work demands.

 

Agenda

1. The chairperson will bring everybody up to date on the negotiations concerning the alliance. If it goes ahead we will be obliged to adopt their policy of working a 35-hour week (2min)

 

2. Each person will be invited to put forward his or her views on the situation. (2 min per person)

 

2. A general discussion period will follow, where each member will put forward suggestions and recommendations to help reach a satisfactory compromise. Actions points will be decided upon.

 

.4. The chairperson will appoint people to be responsible for the various action points.

Useful words and expressions:

 

The chairperson:The participants:

Welcome everyone. I think / I consider / I feel that…

The purpose of this meeting is… On the one hand / on the other hand…

On the one side / on the other side… I have no doubt that…/I definitely think that

Perhaps we could start with the first point, which is… I suggest / I would recommend…

I have to ask you to be as brief as possible I agree. / I’m in favor of that…

To sum it up… I disagree./ You may be right, but…

Mr. X will be responsible for… No problem, I’ll do that right away…

Thank you for participating. I could have done it by early next week

Thank you for cooperation.