Essays on the intersection of M&A and Private Equity/Venture Capital 

The traditional channels through which a private equity (PE) player creates value in buyout transactions are often classified into three different categories: financial, governance, and operational engineering. While the original PE business model was focussed on applying these value levers on the level of an individual firm, PE firms nowadays increasingly focus on creating value through buy-and-build strategies, by using a portfolio firm as a platform for subsequent add-on acquisitions. There is however very limited literature to date on how add-on acquisitions are used by private equity funds in the risky-high growth (i.e. venture capital) phase. Acquisitions could be used by VC-backed firms to accelerate growth by quickly gaining access to a larger market-share, or alternatively, by obtaining technologies that are vital in the further growth of the company. This project aims at analysing the drivers of VC-backed M&A activity as well as the determinants of the success of such strategies. In addition, I would like to intend to explore how that can lead to spillovers for the entire industry.

Keywords:M&A, Private equity, Venture Capital

Disciplines:Business management, Strategic management, Business administration, Financial economics

Project type:Service project