| Summary: | The U.S. food industry experienced a wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) during the second half of the last decade. Increasingly, marketing-related objectives have been suspected to cause these M&As. Denise Dahlhoff investigates the motives underlying the M&A activity in the U.S. food industry in the second half of the last decade. The focus is on marketing-related motives, especially brands, as a driver of M&As. Utilizing the shareholder value framework, the author explains the surge of M&As in the U.S. food industry in recent years; she explores the specific motives of significant M&As in the food industry, linking these motives to shareholder value drivers; she develops a quantitative measurement tool for depicting firms' M&A rationale and applies it in a pilot study. Including both marketing and financial perspectives, Denise Dahlhoff demonstrates how marketing-oriented M&As can generate growth and, ultimately, shareholder value. The findings of this analysis can be applied to similarly structured industries, in particular consumer goods
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