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Why Companies Are Using M&A to Transform Themselves, Not Just to Grow

Harvard Business Review

The current cohort of acquisitions goes well beyond the typical defensive, synergy-driven, horizontal integration that marked previous M&A spurts. Chewy, for its part, gained a bulwark against established brick-and-mortar competitors, including those operating in one of retail’s bright spots: pet care services.

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Today's Best Companies are Horizontally Integrated

Harvard Business Review

In big companies, management teams focus on achieving the right level of vertical integration. With every degree of verticalization now made possible by information and communications technologies, the right scope of operations for any given firm is an open question. This kind of fragmentation commonly results from growth.