The Global Telecommunications Industry Mergers And Acquisitions Analysis

Under the drive of globalization, convergence, information technology breakthrough, in 1996, the United States government released the 1996 Telecommunications Act which is committed to promote competition, reduce regulation and encourage the rapid deployment of new telecom technologies. European countries followed suit and the telecom market came into globalization. Since 1996, centered by U.S., a wave of M&A has flooded over global telecom market which furthered the globalization and convergence procedure in telecom industry and deeply transformed the global telecom structure. In April, 2000, the teleboom went burst because of overinvestment and large scale ill-advised mergers among telecom carriers. Through outlining the global telecom M&A cases from 1996 to 2006, based on mastering the telecom industry basic points, this thesis tries to explore the inner motivations, characteristics and industry trend of telecom. This thesis thinks M&A is just a strategic method of enterprise business development. With the conformability to characteristics, trends and regulation of telecom industry, M&A is the inevitable choice to promote global telecom evolution. Even though telecom industry has gone through sweetness and bitterness during the 10 years, M&A none the less will be the method to realize survival of the fittest. M&A is the natural law of competition and will never die.