Integration considerations

Just back from last week's trek back East to IBM's Software Analyst conference. That company has certainly formed an impressive software group largely through acquisitions over the years and through keeping their value intact and in many cases even growing it. Both Lotus and Rational are excellent examples of acquisitions made years ago that have flourished, matured, and grown into much stronger brands under the leadership of Steve Mills. We can expect more recent acquisitions like Telelogic and Cognos to do the same.

They obviously know how to integrate their acquisitions, and that's a pretty good trick. Many companies wind up destroying them, spending huge sums to acquire a company, and then burying the brand, most of the people, and sometimes even the technology. Now and then it's blatantly done to eliminate a competitor, but mostly poor acquisition integration is an accident that comes from not enough thought or experience about the process, and from the fact that companies actually do have cultures and it's not that easy to knit two together without encountering clashes. The trick is knowing how to handle those clashes and how to promote collaboration instead.

The current economic climate is sure to stimulate more mergers. It will be interesting to see who survives.