1. Home
  2. Studies
  3. Mergers and Acquisitions in German Industry
Vera Demary / Matthias Diermeier IW-Trends No. 4 26. November 2015 Mergers and Acquisitions in German Industry

Heading for Industry 4.0?

Download PDF
Mergers and Acquisitions in German Industry
Vera Demary / Matthias Diermeier IW-Trends No. 4 26. November 2015

Mergers and Acquisitions in German Industry

IW-Trends

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

Heading for Industry 4.0?

The merging of companies contributes enormously to the dynamics of the corporate landscape and is normally coupled to the business cycle. Since the financial crisis of 2009, however, mergers and acquisitions involving German companies have become uncoupled from the state of the economy. This is particularly surprising due to the prevailing weakness of investment in Germany and may be partly explained by the high prices put on companies. Additionally, in the German economy as a whole there is a perceptible trend towards diversifying by merging with firms in other sectors. By contrast, the data for the most important industries suggest that in recent years companies have preferred to consolidate, with comparatively few mergers with, or acquisitions of, companies outside the sector. In view of this, the hypothesis that manufacturing firms are increasingly acquiring the knowledge necessary for the development and implementation of industry 4.0 applications by merging with, or taking over, IT companies cannot be confirmed. Rather, the IT sector is itself going through a period of consolidation.

Download PDF
Mergers and Acquisitions in German Industry
Vera Demary / Matthias Diermeier IW-Trends No. 4 26. November 2015

Vera Demary / Matthias Diermeier: Fusionen und Übernahmen in der deutschen Industrie

IW-Trends

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

More on the topic

Read the article
Christian Rusche / Jeanne Mouton in European Journal of Law and Economics External Publication 15. November 2023

The anti‑steering provision of Article 5 (4) of the DMA: a law and economics assessment on the business model of gatekeepers and business users

Data is a success factor for digital platforms and the core of their business model. The rationale behind this is that data allows for improving the matching process between users which creates value for the platform.

IW

Read the article
Michael Hüther / Hubertus Bardt / Cornelius Bähr / Jürgen Matthes / Klaus-Heiner Röhl / Christian Rusche / Thilo Schaefer IW-Policy Paper No. 7 17. September 2023

Industrial policy at the turn of the times

The current debate on industrial policy vacillates between the extreme positions of an orthodoxy of rejecting state action and a naive belief in the state's ability to control structural change.

IW

More about this topic

Content element with id 8880 Content element with id 9713