Product details

Massmart acquired Game from McCarthy Retail in September 1998 for R755m. Unlike its own mass retailer (Dion, which had struggled since 1993), Game had great historical success and brought a bright new future to further growth of the business. But now, Massmart owned two similar businesses that were beginning to compete directly with one another. Common sense indicated that merging the two businesses was an obvious decision. Massmart had however, attempted to merge Dion and Makro just five years previously, with disastrous results. This case examines the complexities of mergers and acquisitions by comparing and contrasting Massmart's first attempt at merging Dion with Makro with their second possible attempt of merging Dion with Game.