International Expansion Via Acquisition: The Failed Engagement Of Chromalox And Ero

Abstract

Growth is a common organizational objective that can be achieved via development and/or acquisition. In this case, a US company seeks to achieve growth, both domestically and internationally, by acquiring a technologically related foreign firm. The logic surrounding the planned acquisition was to expand and improve an existing product line domestically, while gaining immediate access to European markets. Targeted toward upper-division undergraduate business majors and/or graduate business students, this case provides an example of how growth via acquisition can fail for all the wrong reasons.