The purpose of this paper is to analyse the mergers and acquisitions that have taken place in the Indian pharmaceutical industry, and develop a framework, which would provide directions for a successful merger. In the context of a spurt in the number of Indian companies joining the bandwagon of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) this paper assumes significance as it would provide inputs for companies planning such an M&A. The framework has been developed on the basis of information gathered through in-depth interviews of top executives of pharmaceutical companies, which have undertaken M&A in the recent years. This information has been supplemented by data from the Pharmaceutical Retail Store Audit conducted by ORG-MARG.
During a disputed takeover bid companies are faced with the problem of conducting a major communications campaign, directed at a wide variety of "audiences" who may each be influenced by different factors. Takeover "battles" usually last over a period of six to eight weeks, which may seem quite a long time, but during this period there may well be two or three bids or counter-bids, and the defending company must formulate and disseminate an effective reply to each. It has therefore been our problem at the British Market Research Bureau to develop research techniques and administrative procedures, which can measure quickly the relative effectiveness of our clients' communications campaign, as compared with their "opponents", and assess the relative impact of these various arguments that may he developed during the course of the "battle". In summary, therefore, there are three problems to be solved: A. The identification of the target audiences at which the communications campaign should be directed; B. The assessment of the relative importance of various factors upon each different audience; C. The rapid measurement of changes of opinion, in each audience in response to each bid, counter-bid and rebuttal.
When the results of two surveys based on various samples are to be used simultaneously, a merged file will be generated by grouping individuals from both origins, according to certain criteria. If the explained variables (behavioural), special to each of the A and B surveys to merged, are closely correlated, whereas they offer but few relationships with the usual socio-demographic characteristics common to both surveys, the link between behaviours described by A and B, which subsists after merging, is almost entirely due to random marriages between individuals. To get rid of this difficulty, two methods have been proposed: - some surveys dealing at once with all the behavioural information that are to be put in conjunction: all media and product surveys (AMPS) - some reduced surveys limited to some strongly correlated questions from A and B: bridge surveys. As the problem of merging listenership and readership surveys arises in assessing media campaigns, the Orphee Association (Havas, Publicis and SINCRO) has carried out the following experiments.
When the results of two surveys based on various samples are to be used simultaneously, a merged file will be generated by grouping individuals from both origins, according to certain criteria. If the explained variables (behavioural), special to each of the A and B surveys to merged, are closely correlated, whereas they offer but few relationships with the usual socio-demographic characteristics common to both surveys, the link between behaviours described by A and B, which subsists after merging, is almost entirely due to random marriages between individuals. To get rid of this difficulty, two methods have been proposed: - some surveys dealing at once with all the behavioural information that are to be put in conjunction: all media and product surveys (AMPS) - some reduced surveys limited to some strongly correlated questions from A and B: bridge surveys. As the problem of merging listenership and readership surveys arises in assessing media campaigns, the Orphee Association (Havas, Publicis and SINCRO) has carried out the following experiments.