The Effect of Mergers and Acquisition on a Firm’s Competitive Advantage: A Case of Hewlett-Packard East Africa

The main objective of this study was to establish the effect of Mergers and Acquisition (M&A) on a firm's competitive advantage in the IT industry. A descriptive research approach was adopted with a target population comprising of all employees atHewlett Packard Company (HP) in Nairobi, Kenya.Horizontal mergers were found to be the most common types of mergers. These mergers weremainly driven by external economies of scale, market power, combined complimentary resources and customer service quality. The findings also established that the major elements of competitive advantage were volume of transactions and markets share. External economies of scale, market power and combined complimentary resources contributed positively to competitive advantage while surplus funds and idle resources did not drive competitive advantage. Based on the study,researchers recommended that decisions on M&A should be based on first understanding which facets of the business will be driven by the M&A in order to derive a competitive advantage. In addition, there is need for companies to do progress evaluation of the M&A specifically to review its impact on competitive advantage.