Mergers, Acquisitions, and Convergence: The Strategic Alliances of Broadcasting, Cable Television, and Telephone Services

Convergence through mergers and acquisitions seems to provide the best opportunity for companies to accelerate the implementation of new technologies and at the same time capture a developed customer base. This article addresses the following research questions: (a) What is the pattern of mergers and acquisitions in the broadcasting, cable TV, and telephone industries after the 1996 ownership deregulation? (b) What are the initial merger and acquisition strategies for broadcasting, cable TV, and telephone companies on the way to convergence? (c) Is the convergence being carried out by internal (within industry) mergers and acquisitions or cross-segment integrated strategic alliances?

A Structural Analysis of Media Convergence: Cross-Industry Mergers and Acquisitions in the Information Industries

This article analyzes structural changes in the information industries including publishing, broadcasting, film, cable, telephony, software and data processing, and the Internet in the era of "convergence" before and after 1996. The cross-industry network structure was mapped using annual data on mergers and acquisitions among information industry firms obtained from the Journal of Mergers and Acquisitions. A comparative network analysis of these ownership transactions indicated that the consolidating structure of information industries after 1996 was affected by both deregulation and digitization, and that telephone corporations played the most central role in the transformation of the information industries. As well, cable and Internet industries noticeably transformed their industrial relations over this time period.