Acquisitions are standard components of the growth strategies of many organizations.
Frequently, acquisitions raise important questions concerning how and to what extent
the acquisition’s information technology (IT) needs to be integrated into the IT of the
acquirer. We investigate how the initial conditions of business and IT alignment in the
acquirer and the acquisition affect the complexity of the post-acquisition IT integration
process, in acquisitions of business units by multi-business organizations. Adopting an
IT alignment model for multi-business organizations, we explain the complexity of IT
integration paths in two acquisitions made by the industry group Trelleborg AB. We
identify four initial business and IT strategic alignment conditions where the IT
integration process is a simple one-step process exploiting existing business and IT
capabilities. Low compliance with these conditions leads to increased complexity
because additional business and/or IT capabilities have to be developed to leverage the
full potential of the acquisition