Industries and markets have always changed, but the pace of change is increasing tremendously. Rapid advances in technology and communication, falling trade barriers, and the availability of cheap transportation make the competitive landscape an extremely complex, competitive and uncertain arena. In today's environment, growth, economies of scale, and mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have become the contemporary paradigms. In conditions where industries and their products mature rapidly, cost efficiency and cost leadership are becoming key competitive strategies. Cost leadership is inevitably related to economies of scale, which calls for the scaling-up of players. To reach superior scale, companies may grow by expansion into new markets, product diversification, vertical or horizontal integration or through M&As. The growing size of leading players is resulting in a rapid concentration of their industries. In this context it is no surprise that the applied strategic logic behind numerous M&As is: "bigger is more important than better".
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