Maturing, Technology-Based, Born Global Companies: Surviving Through Mergers and Acquisitions

To date, there has been little research about the corporate growth of born-global companies and relatively little data exist about their maturation, survival as independent companies (or failure to do so) and their international strategies. The present paper is based on an empirical study of Israeli technology-based companies that were identified in the late 1990s as born global. We collected data about the continuing development of these firms for the decade spanning 2000–2009. Our findings show that maturing technology-based, born-global companies can increase their chances of survival by acquiring other firms. Although such acquisitions do not increase profits, they allow born-global firms to continue increasing their sales and to expand and upgrade their product line, which in turn increases their chances of remaining independent. The data also show that if the firms prefer to merge with another company, they are in a better position if they do not acquire any other firms beforehand. Finally, our data show that although the majority of born-global companies can continue operations if they survived the first decade, they are not highly successful on the measures of growth and shareholder wealth. One of the recommendations of this study is that for maturing, technology-based, born-global companies to remain successful, they must be more aggressive in their M&A strategy than they are at the moment.