小規模電信業者購併之研究

Currently, in Taiwan small telecom operators were facing different life cycles as well as operating issuing. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is a possible way which is worth to consider, but should not be the ultimately way, because the main point is to identify the most valuable strategy for the operators. How to make a successful M&A? Small telecom operators (STO) should identify an appropriate way for their own to achieve the maximum benefit for M&A. Therefore, a complete evaluation M&A is a very important topic for STO before merger. This study concentrates on M&A of STO, and tries to analyze the possible ways for STO to increase corporate value and growth opportunities through M&A. The research uses questionnaires, interview and case study approaches to analyze types of M&A, motivations of M&A (including synergy of operating, marketing, financial and tax effectiveness) and possible negative impacts after M&A. The case study finds that both Taiwan Mobile and Far East Tone Telecommunications in the M&A process were "the main acquirers", the type of M&A is "homologous-type merger" and "friendly takeover merger ". The both cases also indicat that the brand competitiveness improvement, increasing economies of scale and scope, and effectiveness of resources using have significant effects, but the effects of market synergy and financial synergy are not so obvious in the short term. In addition, questionnaires and interviews also suggested that most of respondents believe that the small telecom operators should consider to be "acquired firm" instead of "acquiring firm" "horizontal" and "friendly takeover" are the better M&A strategies for STO. The top three operating synergies were "increasing market share (number of subscribers) ", "increasing the survivability", and "increasing the economics of scale". The top three market synergies are "improving network coverage", "enhancing bargaining power and reducing purchasing costs", and "creating more new subscribers". The top three financial synergies are "improving financial structure", "increasing stock price", and "increasing cash flow and its stability". Synergy of tax is coming from the "tax shield", which is result from interest expenses and operating loss for STO, respectively. Finally, the study also finds that the negative post merger effects include corporate culture change which increases employees’ turnover rate, duplicate investment, and increasing operating costs due to difficult integration. Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions, Small Telecom Operators