Identifying Targets for Technology Mergers and Acquisitions Using Patent Information and Semantic Analysis

Abstract

Technology plays an increasingly important role in today’s enterprise competition. Technology mergers and acquisitions (Tech M&A), as an effective way to acquire the external technology resources rapidly, have attracted attention from researchers for their potential realization of value through synergy. A big challenge is how to identify appropriate targets to support the effective technology integration. In this study, we developed a model of target selection of Tech M&A from the perspective of technology relatedness and R&D capability. We present results for the Tech M&A case in China’s cloud computing industry.