26. Global Mergers
and Acquisitions: An Integrated Approach
Presenter: Philip D. Drake, American Graduate School of International
Management, Thunderbird
Description: The Global
Mergers and Acquisitions course is a three-hour course that is taught in the
three-week period. The first two weeks consist of 25 1½-hour sessions
taught by ten different faculty on a variety of topics associated with
M&As. The topics range from strategy, negotiations, tax, cross-culture,
risk management, finance, legal and statutory, accounting, integration,
marketing, and business intelligence from a global perspective. These topics
are taught by either lecture/discussion or by the case method.
A unique feature is that the final
week is a week-long role-play case study of the Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline
merger. The students assume the roles of senior management and are assigned
into teams of four. The students conduct an in-depth analysis including a BI
session of the pharmaceutical industry and the relevant companies resulting in
a two-stage negotiation with another team regarding the terms of the merger.
This case brings together all the elements presented in the course's first two
weeks in an active, hands-on learning experience. At the end of the week, each
team defends its actions before its "Board of Directors" (i.e.,
course faculty).
Since its inception, this course has
been the highest-rated course offered on campus.
