How Acquisitions Change Organizational Structures, Product Portfolio, and Market Positions

This study applies the product architecture positioning perspective to the case of a Japanese visual technology company which made a series of acquisitions. It aims to shed some light on how effective management of the acquired resources may be realized. We describe the process of internalization of the acquired targets and expansion of the product architecture, examine the different organizational structures used, and discuss how the concurrent changes in the product architecture and organizational design have contributed to profitability in a new business field. This study demonstrates that acquisitions can enable the firm to move to a more integral and closed product architecture by exploiting the acquirer's and target's resources when they are complementary.