Mergers and acquisitions: The impact on information systems and information technology

Recently, there have been significant corporate changes within the major contracting organizations in the UK. Mergers and acquisitions are creating large, pan-European contractors. Such changes have a fundamental impact on the way these contractors operate. The reasons behind the increased mergers and acquisitions activities, and how these corporate changes affect information systems and information technology (IS/IT) are examined. The present paper illustrates these IS/IT changes using the acquisition of two British contractors as case studies. The results show that issues such as leadership, communications and culture have a significant impact on how organizational changes are implemented.