Impact Of Mergers And Acquisitions On Telecommunications Sector

Overview of Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) Industry

Technology, media, as well as telecommunications (TMT) encompass a broad variety of commercial development. There are no official industrial categorization schemes that include this industry aggregation, but TMT is prominent among traders and investors, maybe as various economic activities are intimately interrelated and the same market participants overlap. The technology and media sectors of the TMT industry have grown in prominence over the past two decades, in part because of their high rates of return (Raju and Madhuri, 2020). Today, nine of the world's top 10 most profitable firms are based in this industry.

When two or more businesses come together to form a new company, this is referred to as a merger. There are many different types of mergers, as well as many different reasons why firms merge with their rivals. As a rule, mergers are used to extend a company's market share, diversify its portfolio, or increase its reach. This is all done for the benefit of the company's stockholders, who will be more confident in the company's future. A horizontal merger is amongst the one through which two or more firms in the same industry join to form a single business. To put it simply, it is a merger of companies that offer the same services or goods. Smaller companies are more likely to combine than bigger ones, with the goal of gaining a larger market share and higher economies of scale. This is because the rivalry among the smaller enterprises is fiercer (Langlais et.al., 2022). The acquisition of another firm and the merger of activities is known as business integration. Acquisition, merger, or takeover are all viable options. Companies of all sizes and a wide range of goods and services can be integrated in a variety of sectors. For many years, mergers and acquisitions in the telecommunications business have been a mainstay. Merger and integration activity has turned the telecom environment into the highly competitive one we see today thanks to investments totalling an amazing USD 1.5 trillion made over the last decade. Nevertheless, the reasons for the deals have changed over time, and experts believe that the sector is on the verge of a new surge of merger and integration activity that will be fuelled by some of the current upheavals. Some of these purchases will be of well-funded "unicorns"—companies with a value of more than $1 billion. There are a number of distinct issues associated with these transactions—especially when it comes to integration (Howell, 2019).

After a sharp decline in merger and integration activity in 2019, the deal value increased by roughly 50% in 2020 as a result of the rebound. The transaction mix also changed throughout the industry. Although there were concerns that authorities would stifle future industry consolidation (even with very few chances), scale merger and integration revived. There has been a decline in in-country scope acquisitions, which accounted for more than 20% among all telecom merger and integration deals from 2013 to 2019, due to the global economy's preference for more generic skills. The third kind of acquisition particular to telecoms, infrastructure merger and integration, maintained apace as businesses seek to commercialize infrastructure assets that fetch three to four times the valuation multiples of consolidated telecom operators (Gupta et.al., 2019). It is observed that most of the companies which engage in mergers and integrations, whether they are in telecommunication sector or not undertakes this, such that they can have the benefits of the synergy and gain competitive advantage in effective manner, by combining their assets, enhancing their share return, profits, return on investments, sales, etc. In order to provide higher value for its shareholders of their particular firms, many organisations use a variety of growth strategies, ranging from making additional investments in capital projects to selecting a good target for merger or acquisition. The following section discusses the aspect of what is the impact of impact of mergers and integrations on the telecommunications sector based on share price and profits, how the companies having been moving towards the road map of success over the time.

Types and Reasons for Mergers in the Telecommunications Sector

The aim of the research is to assess as to what impact does mergers and integrations have upon the telecommunications sector based upon share price and profits and the following objectives will be fulfilled to achieve the aim of the research-

• To assess the importance of mergers and integration across businesses
• To assess the impact of merger and integration upon telecommunication sector
• To assess how the telecommunications sector have been impacted by mergers and integrations in relation to share price and profits

The following research questions will be assessed to accomplish the aims and objectives of the research-

• What is the importance of mergers and integration across businesses?
• What is the impact of merger and integration upon telecommunication sector?
• how the telecommunications sector has been impacted by mergers and integrations in relation to share price and profits?

Control as well as synergy gained through a merger and integration are difficult to assess, but it is widely accepted that development is an important value driver. Industry structure, behaviour, and productivity are all impacted by mergers and integrations. An industry's number as well as size distribution is altered when there is a merger, which increases concentration in the industry. As long as two or more businesses can benefit from economies of scale, competition will breed efficiency. Significant market power benefits might be used if this policy is not implemented (Cho et.al., 2020). Mergers that achieve economies of scale will function as a barrier to entry for others. Intangible assets, including as patents, can help mergers improve product distinctiveness. Product differentiation alters the merger's behaviour. There are a large number of variables driving mergers and acquisitions. The reasons for the acquisition include expansion, boosting profitability, synergy goals, risk diversification, as well as tax reduction. Another reason being studied in this research is information signalling. The news of a merger or acquisition might convey a signal to the market, affecting share prices. Mergers and acquisition announcements expose huge amounts of information regarding the specific deal, and this information may be used to gauge the stock market's response. The mergers and acquisitions in the TMT sector are more frequent than in any other industry, accounting for around a quarter of all global mergers and integration activity. There are numerous mergers in the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) sector since the industry is extremely dynamic as well as marked by the frequent arrival of enterprises with novel business models, various of which are bought by the existing incumbents (Cave et.al., 2019).

There were a number of objectives for this transaction, which brought together two organisations with quite different leadership styles and corporate cultures. Strategic planning in organisations will benefit greatly from this research, which is critical for cultural integration in mergers and acquisitions. It is common for companies to combine or acquire one another in order to boost their overall profitability and market share (Rai, 2018). There are a number of researches on the subject matter of mergers and integration but the research as pertinent to the subject matter of telecommunication industry and that too in reference to the share price and profits together is limited. This is why the researcher has undertaken this research, such that study's goal to help managers and organisations improve their chances of a successful merger in the future such that the impact upon the share price and profits can be realized in the way they have visualized the same. This research adds to the body of information on how to boost the aspect of executives planning, organising, and executing future acquisitions and mergers, the findings of this study are critical.

Impact of Mergers and Integrations on Industry Structure, Behavior, and Productivity

A wide variety of strategic planning are employed by various corporations, from the addition of new capital projects to the search for an appropriate target for merger or acquisition with the goal of increasing shareholder value. Organizations that desire to reinvent themselves in the market might gain from mergers and acquisitions. Companies may quickly increase their market reach and change their market position by expanding functionalities to their product offerings. Mergers and acquisition announcements expose huge amounts of information regarding the specific deal, and this information may be used to gauge the stock market's reaction. In order to provide long-distance methods of communication, the telecommunication sector involves all economic operations that are necessary for the transmission of the signal, text, picture, or sound (Fernández, 2018). Mobile phone, landline phone, television, as well as internet service providers make up the bulk of this industry's players, with the former being responsible for building and maintaining the latter's network infrastructure. Non-integrated service providers sometimes rely on the network infrastructure owned and shared by the main telecom carriers in an area.

During the entire transaction at the exchange, the demand and supply sides of the market come together to produce share prices that may be observed as equilibrium prices. An investor's gain or loss on a security over a certain time period is referred to as a return. Investing in a stock is a long-term investment, and the return on that investment is made up of two key components: dividends and capital gains. Dividends are the portions of a company's net profits that are dispersed to its shareholders as cash payments. Alternatively, dividends can be expressed as a percentage of the stock's current market value (Bourreau et.al., 2018). The dividend yield is the term for this. A dividend may be described as the distribution of income or capital gains that must be paid to shareholders. Profits accruing to an investor following the sale of an asset are referred to as "capital gains" in this context. To put it another way, capital gains are the sum of returns achieved over and beyond the purchase price of a certain asset, such as a company's common stock.

According to information economics, the fluctuation of stock prices may be ascribed to the sort of information that can be accessed to all investors or a specific set of investors, relying on the market's efficiency. Share prices may react to news of merger and acquisition activity. Several factors affect the profits acquired companies get. It is difficult to separate the impact of a single purchase because many companies participate in a succession of acquisitions over time. Acquiring firms often earn at least their cost of capital if the period in which yields to shareholders are calculated includes a year or two prior to an acquisition. In most cases, mergers improve competition and customer welfare by allowing companies to function more effectively following the merger (Braunfels et.al., 2019). Others may actually diminish competition, resulting in increased pricing, less availability of goods and services, lower-quality goods and services, and a decrease in innovative ideas and products. In fact, although some mergers result in a more concentrated market, others allow a single company to boost its pricing on its products. For example, the target firm's foundation of knowledge might be absorbed by the target business's focus firm in the acquisition process as a result of the company's enhanced knowledge base, new combinations and integrations could be possible. As a result, mergers and acquisitions may allow two companies to combine their strengths and create advances that would have been impossible for each company to achieve on its own.

Reasons for Acquisition and Effect on Stock Market

Company size, macroeconomic fundamentals, prior earnings per share, share turnover ratio, indebtedness, earnings statements, dividends, stock, book value, dividend yield, dividend cover, and price earnings ratio may all affect share prices and their reactions. Additionally, the above-mentioned variables have an impact on share price changes. As a result of changes in the above-mentioned company-specific circumstances, investors may need to purchase, sell, or hold onto their shares (Tyagi, 2018). To put it another way, investors may hang on to their shares or even purchase more if they believe the company's EPS ratio will continue to rise. As a result of increased demand or decreased supply, this action would raise the price of the stock. However, market expectations have only a short-term impact on short-term stock values. But long-term rates of return on assets should be determined on economic rationality. Studies on the impact of macroeconomic conditions on stock prices have been conducted in many different ways. GDP growth, interest rates, inflation, the extent of the financial system, stock prices, and the degree of economic efficiency are all elements to consider. As an example, a rise in GDP would lead to a rise in the stock price. High inflation would reduce the purchasing power of money, making it more difficult for investors to purchase stock, while those who already own stock may opt to sell it to raise cash for other purposes. As a result, share prices may decline as a result of a lack of interest from investors (Zhang et.al., 2020).

The high frequency of mergers in the TMT industry is supported by the finding that the industry is particularly dynamic and distinguished by the frequent arrival of enterprises with novel business strategies, many of which are bought by the entrenched incumbents. Mergers and integrationss aim to increase the value of the acquirer's stock and, in turn, the wealth of its owners. As a result, the rationale for mergers and integrations is thought to be compatible with maximising shareholder wealth, including diversity, growth, synergy, money raising, management skill and technology enhancements, tax concerns, and protection from takeover.

Mergers and acquisitions that focus on efficiency are the most successful. In order to achieve these types of outcomes, integrated project management offices (IMOs) must continuously exert pressure on value extraction. The first step for IMOs is to examine the original synergy goals and then create "stretch" goals for various roles, processes, or groups of activities. Merger target selection is sometimes focused only on identifying the "best" company to merge. While redundant costs including scale effects in purchasing should be taken into account when setting stretch objectives, it's also critical that young companies strive to achieve their greatest performance (Kumar, 2019). Legally required monopolies have long dominated the telecom business, which was overseen by the government. The emergence of competing infrastructures and new services, as well as the opportunity for competition to substitute regulation in at least some of the services supplied, has significantly transformed the economics of telecom services. Telecom companies have been able to obtain economies of scale and range by (1) moving into new product or market segments or gaining market entrance across conventional industry boundaries and (2) merging network infrastructure with content. Telecom companies may provide a "package" of products and services in a dynamic environment, especially when the telecom and cable sectors' technologies merge. It's not just new technology that drives merger and integration activity. Broadband access to households and the potential to mix content with transmission are only two examples of the driving forces behind many a telecom merger. Increasing cross-border telecommunications activity, as well as the number of major mergers and joint ventures, was made possible by a reduction in international trade prohibitions and other regulatory impediments (Majumdar, 2019). A merger occurs when two businesses merge into one entity. Increased market share will allow the new company to benefit from economies of scale and become more lucrative. As a result of the merger, customers may see their costs rise.

Frequency of Mergers and Acquisitions in TMT Sector

2 years of planning and discussions culminated in a $26.5 billion transaction between the third and fourth-largest cellular companies in the United States on April 1, 2020. Now that T-Mobile and Sprint have merged, Mike Sievert, T-previous Mobile's COO, has been named CEO of the combined business. Sprint's prepaid operations and Sprint's 800MHz spectrum holdings were required to be sold to Dish Network as part of the DOJ's clearance of the agreement. The New T-Mobile must therefore grant Dish wireless customers access to the network for seven years as well as provide basic transition services to Dish over a transition period of up to three years. Typically, organisations combine or buy in order to increase their income or profitability, and this is the most common reason for doing so (Okoeguale, 2018).

A company's share price may rise if the market considers its mergers and integrations strategy sound. Companies are no longer restricted to the borders of their own countries or regions. Combinations and acquisitions are becoming increasingly common as the rate of technological advancement quickens. These transactions may speed up product development, offer access to new markets and technology, and protect a company from both internal and external competition. There was an all-time high of 3,389 mergers and integrations deals globally in 2017 totalling $498.2 billion in the (TMT) industry. Sixty percent and seventy-two percent, correspondingly, of U.S. corporate as well as private-equity executives believe that the number of deals will rise in 2018 (Kittilaksanawong, 2018). According to 65 percent of business respondents, their cash reserves have grown over the previous two years. The majority of that cash is earmarked for acquisitions.

Mergers and acquisitions are pursued by companies for a number of reasons. A recent Deloitte poll found that the most common reasons for acquiring technology, growing client bases in current areas, and improving production offerings and services were all highlighted by 20 percent of respondents (16 percent). In addition, digital strategy, global expansion, and the search for new employees are all important considerations. 40% of TMT firms that have already embraced cognitive technology are actively seeking to expand their artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities through mergers and investments. Despite this, many purchases are doomed from the start, even if their rationale is reasonable (Musah et.al., 2020).

By the end of March, Microsoft had agreed to buy Affirmed Networks for an unknown sum of money. Affirmed Networks, a cloud-native provider of network function virtualization, was founded in 2010 and has grown rapidly since then. Network virtualization software for 5G mobile network deployment would be provided by Microsoft as part of the agreement, the company stated. More and more service providers are using public cloud services instead of building their own data centres to house pricey bespoke hardware, as has been the case over the last few years. Microsoft claimed that the purchase will make its Azure public cloud service more attractive to major telecom providers.

The most prevalent cause of acquisition failure is a lack of understanding by management of the value drivers for delivering a return on investment. It is also common for a company to complete a transaction without making sure the rest of the company knows why it was completed and what to do with it (Chao and Ho, 2019). Executives must begin the mergers and integrations lifecycle with the ultimate objective in mind to avoid these mistakes and maximise the value of acquisitions. What is the underlying rationale for the investment? Exactly what are you aiming for? What are the benefits of using this product? Can you put it concisely into words? Due diligence and deal execution must be conducted in accordance with an operational model-driven strategy. For example, a laser-like concentration on the deal's drivers can fuel value from downstream operations.   To put it another way, the transaction thesis should drive the operational strategy, as well as the operating strategic purview should influence the plan for integration. Furthermore, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has given the go-ahead to a merger between two of the continent's major carriers, Vodafone Hutchinson Australia (VHA) and TPG (ACCC) (King et.al., 2018). Vodafone said the transaction would boost Vodafone's network capacity and enable its 5G aspirations, as well as provide the operator additional breathing room for additional investments. There are still regulatory and shareholder permissions to be obtained before the merger may be finalised in mid-2020.

Importance of Cultural Integration in Mergers and Acquisitions

Insufficient merger integration strategy and execution plague many tech and talent acquisitions. Important facts are really not conveyed to the necessary parties in a timely manner when this occurs. Assets can "disappear" when these firms are not being encouraged to keep an eye on the ones they acquire. A company's management must guarantee that the purchased assets remain a priority and also those relevant stakeholders are held responsible up to two to three years, if necessary—to maximise the value of the purchase. To make matters more difficult, bright personnel (often engineers) who have been transferred to a larger organisation may have difficulty adjusting to the new environment (Li et.al., 2019). In many cases, these new hires are millennials who have a strong desire to create technology that will "transform the world." The acquisition of a start-leadership up's team may complicate issues because they may no longer be a member of the new firm, or they may discover themselves in lower-level positions. Both firms can likely enjoy economies of scale by combining some activities due to their size. Therefore, the focus is on repositioning the organisation in the current ecosystem or the environment that the industry is moving toward, rather than merely reorganising the company. In order to eliminate non-strategic business divisions, the transformation technique is frequently paired with divestitures. Transformation is by far the hardest to carry off, but it may provide the most value when done well, because both organisations change significantly in the course of the process (Johnston, 2020). By combining complementary firms, it is often possible to modify the business model and raise the company's size at the same time. Nevertheless, in all of these techniques, organisations should focus on ensuring that they are using the proper integration model, depending on a realistic evaluation of their situation. Unfortunately, this happens all too often as a result of firms trying to restrict how much change they are ready to undergo, resulting in an operating model that looks too much like the original. True transformation needs a great deal of dedication, concentration, and perseverance on the part of the one seeking it (Chu et.al., 2021).

Research methodology is the process of finding, choosing, and putting into practise study methodologies that are most likely to provide trustworthy and accurate results. An analysis of the selection of certain procedures and the exclusion of alternative approaches must be included in this study. With the help of this section, the researcher may more easily select relevant and reliable data-gathering approaches. To perform a desk-based study, the researcher used the secondary research technique of completing a systematic literature review in this research article. Choosing approaches that will aid in addressing the research and analysis issue impact of mergers and integrations upon share price and profits within the telecommunication sector. This will help in providing other key players in the market to undertake certain actions to ensure that the desired goal of attaining high share price and profitability is achieved.

 There are a number of methods can be utilised to acquire the necessary data for the analysis. Many scientific components are used to ensure that the research problem is adequately addressed. The study necessitates three types of research designs: descriptive, casual, and exploratory. To gather and describe parts of research questions, descriptive research design is useful. Descriptive research has several advantages, including the ability to evaluate information and acquire a deeper grasp of the study topic. Descriptive research also has the advantage of allowing researchers to observe human behaviour in the wild. Because the information gathered is a mix of the two, it provides a comprehensive picture of the subject under study (Sun and Lipsitz, 2018). Each piece of knowledge is unique and different, as well as comprehensive. Furthermore, the exploratory research approach helps the researcher get a deeper understanding of the issues at hand and expand their conceptual horizons. Explanatory research design, on the other hand, may be used to solve the problem of research in which there are no preceding studies. An explanatory or exploratory research approach was not used in this study due to a belief that a descriptive approach is better in elucidating research difficulties and addressing the study's goals and objectives (Newman and Gough, 2020). Furthermore, the researcher was able to undertake a desk-based investigation due to the existence of relevant papers on the subject matter; hence, explanatory research was avoided. In addition to resolving the research questions, it also brought the study to a close by providing an in-depth understanding of the issues raised by the investigation. Studying the concept of mergers and integrations requires that the research is able to comprehend the concepts of companies, share price, growth, profitability and thereby help in generate trustworthy and valid results by the use of descriptive design of the research.

In research, the methods are chosen based on how closely they relate to the topic under consideration. There are a variety of ways that may be used based on the scope of the assessment situation. Both inductive and deductive research methods exist. An inductive research technique aids the researcher in performing the study more freely; hypotheses and acknowledgements are introduced first, and those are scheduled for the study's completion. A hypothesis is not necessary for the evaluation of the inductive technique, and no hypotheses are required to begin the investigation of the topic. Contrary to popular belief, inductive and deductive inquiry are diametrically opposed. It emphasises the need of a well-structured investigation and the development of a hypothesis (Sheriff, 2021). Unlike the inductive technique, the deductive does not employ a flexible approach to finish the study, and this method is often used to address a problem that has not been solved properly in prior studies or there are no studies accessible on the specific research issue. Using an inductive research strategy, the study's aim is achieved while resolving the research issues without resorting to highly organised approaches for resolving the issue in this case (Pallavi, 2020). To perform a desk-based study, the researcher relied on relevant studies that had already been done; consequently, there was no need to undertake a deductive research approach using hypothesis generation. As a consequence, an inductive technique and conceptual research are both acceptable in this case to investigate how the mergers and integrations are impact the companies within the telecommunication sector in respect of the share prices and profitability concepts.

The various methods of data collection are used to gather information or data from a variety of sources. It demonstrates the significance of the study findings in a clear and concise manner. Primary and secondary ways data collection being the two most fundamental and important avenues via which data may be gathered. The confederation relies heavily on participants providing up-to-date and accurate information as the major data collection mechanism. In order to gather primary data, researchers might use a variety of methods, including surveys, interviews, questionnaires, experiments, and focus groups. It is safe to use these approaches to collect data from participants but it required use of consent forms, abiding by various legal aspects to ensure that the information so collection will be safe as per the privacy laws, seeking prior concerns, pilot testing, etc. (Karale, 2020) The secondary technique, on the other hand, aids in the collection of current studies and earlier study for the exploration of research notions. When it comes to obtaining information, this strategy provides a wide range of options. In this study, the researcher intends to do a desk-based research study using secondary research. Aside from that, secondary data collecting is not any more difficult or expensive than the original technique. A secondary data collecting approach was used by the researcher in order to acquire data by using literature acquired from Google scholar, using reports or publications of companies, using data from various websites providing information of organizations so involved in mergers and integrations and how they have inculcated various strategies to ensure that the desired results as pertinent to the increase in share price and growth is achieved. Finally, these techniques will enable the study collect relevant information relevant to the research subject and providing deep insights in relation to the subject matter of the research.

Research strategies are methods for identifying and collecting relevant data. In order to get accurate results from the study, the researcher might employ a variety of methods or equipment. Effective research strategies aid in the acquisition of exact data, which in turn aids in the generation of outcomes while solving the research issue (Snyder, 2019). A case study approach was employed by the researcher to gather information from relevant and effective papers after conforming to this particular research topic. This research is effective and advantageous in this study since the secondary way of gathering data is employed. Researchers can use this method to locate, gather, and examine relevant data on a certain topic. This will help in analyzing the research topic in comprehensive and effective manner (Budianto, 2020).

The study design, data gathering technique, and research strategy all influence the data analysis approach of the research significantly. The study's collected data and information may be analysed using a variety of approaches. Analyzing data can be undertaken via statistical approaches, descriptive methods, qualitative methods, textual methods, predictive methods, diagnostic methods, content analysis method and many more are all part of this study. Because of its ability to discover systematic data in any type of text, visual, spoken, or written, content analysis was specifically chosen by the researcher for this study's research design and other approaches to address the case study strategy adopted to analyze the research topic in detail. There are several instances of content analysis that may be utilised in a study, such as books, publications, speeches, and interviews (Sheriff, 2021). To describe the conceptual knowledge relevant to the influence of mergers and integrations upon the share price and profits of telecommunication industry, researcher have undertaken this approach strategically such that desired results can be retrieved from the research.

Secondary analysis pertains to the use of available research data to address a separate question than the one originally asked in the original study. Even if the underlying ethical concerns surrounding the secondary use of research data have not changed, new technologies have made them more serious (Varpio et.al, 2020). Compiling, storing, and distributing data has never been easier or faster. Simultaneously time, new questions concerning data privacy and security have been raised. Most of the concerns concerning secondary use of data concentrate around the possible harm to individuals and the question of compensation for their permission. The quantity of identifying details in secondary data varies. An ethical board's thorough evaluation is not necessary if the data contains no personal information, is empty of personal information, or is suitably coded to prevent the researcher from accessing the codes. A simple confirmation by the board will suffice (Sheriff, 2021). The board will conduct a thorough examination of the proposal if the data contains participant identification information or information that might be related to participant identification information. Identification of information is required to address the research question, as well as the researcher must clarify why this information is necessary and how it will be secured. The researcher can then request a waiver of permission if the above-mentioned issues are satisfied.

As long as the data is widely available online or in books, authorization for future usage and analysis is presumed. " Ownership of the original data, on the other hand, should be recognised. Obtaining specific written permission from the original study team as well as include it in the ethical clearance application is required if the research is a part of another research project and the data is not publicly available except to the original research team. It is true that the data used for secondary analysis has certain other difficulties. The information gathered must be sufficient and pertinent, but not excessive. Data that was not collected to solve the research topic is used as a primary source in secondary data analysis. As a result, data should be assessed based on a variety of factors, including the collecting technique, accuracy, time span, intended use, and data content (Budianto, 2020). Keeping it longer than required is not permitted. Protect it from illegal access, unintentional loss or destruction by storing it in an appropriate location. Hardcopies of data should be stored in secured cabinets, while encrypted information should be stored on computers. Researchers are responsible for ensuring that any further analysis they undertake on the data they have already collected is suitable. Therefore, these are some of the important aspects which are required to be addressed by the researcher as pertinent to analyzing the research topic.

This industry has been taken over by a mania for mergers. This year has seen a steady stream of merger and acquisition announcements from the telecom and cable industries as they attempt to expand their consumer and business base. As a result of the merger, key resources and infrastructure were pooled, resulting in improved service and customer satisfaction. In addition to reducing financial difficulties, this amalgamated firm has been able to devote more resources to improving customer service. Giving customers what they want while simultaneously keeping true to the company's ideals and maximising profits is a delicate balancing act. Streaming content providers are sweeping the market by storm and attracting new users at an unprecedented rate, and so many network operators are acquiring material to keep up (Christofi et.al., 2019).

It was announced in February that Wavenet, a UK-based communications and business telephone service provider, purchased Portal Voice and Data for an unknown amount. According to the two firms, the purchase strengthens Wavenet's position in the UK market by adding Portal's 20 years of telecom and maintenance knowledge. In the United Kingdom alone, Wavenet claims to service thousands of companies (Bain, 2022).

In addition to the outbreak of the pandemic, there were two other major factors that propelled large-scale mergers and acquisitions in 2020. It was a major signal to the telecom sector in May when the European Court of Justice reversed an EU competition authority's judgement to prevent the merger of O2 and Three in a $13.5 billion transaction. The UK telecommunications market's modest revenue decrease in 2020 was mostly due to the industry's fierce competition and low prices, which have given customers a wide range of service options but have left many operators struggling to create long-term development. Two big firms merged to establish Virgin Media O2, which should be a formidable competitor to BT (Fu et.al., 2018). Virgin Media and O2 are owned by Liberty Global and Telefonica Group, respectively. Operators are expected to witness further industry consolidation in the future years as they strive to achieve the economies of scale as well as capital efficiency essential to sustain long-term revenue growth. O2 was a winning bidder in the 700MHz auction in March 2021 under a former incarnation. H3 and EE also purchased a portion of the 60MHz of 700MHz bandwidth that was available. 120 MHz of 3.6-3.8 GHz spectrum was made available at the same time, with O2, EE, and Vodafone the winners. However, EE may utilise its 700Mhz holding to relieve some of the pressure on its overburdened LTE service, since the licensees aim to use their allowances for 5G mobile services initially (Suzuki et.al., 2018). As the government's 5G Supply Chain Diversification Strategy was launched in November 2020, 5G rollouts around the country have continued apace, supported by the strategy. An additional $250 million would be used to support a more varied and competitive supplier market for telecoms after Huawei and other manufacturers were barred from selling some 5G network components. It is expected that Japanese businesses like Samsung, NEC, and Fujitsu would have more opportunity to serve the larger 5G ecosystem after the majority of MNOs shifted their core network development to Ericsson. Private investors and their investment vehicles pursue listed telecom companies in a variety of P2P flavours. So far long as private telecom values are much higher than public firm valuations, we believe P2P acquisitions will continue. They will also be popular as long as new competitors emerge with the potential for increased growth and profit margins (by moving a wholesale-based business on its own infrastructure) (Zhou et.al., 2020). Mergers and integrations have repeatedly shown that frequent acquirers thrive throughout industries so the most efficient acquirers establish mergers and integrations skills for a repeatable model. Merger and integration has regularly proved that. Telecom businesses will need to rethink their merger and integration strategy in order to succeed in large-scale acquisitions. Successful scope deals will necessitate, among other things, a renewal of organisations' merger and integration screening skills. Companies who want to make the most out of infrastructure merger and integration will conduct a thorough review of their current and future infrastructure assets. All telecoms should keep an eye on private equity interest in their operations in order to take advantage of recent resurgence in interest (Gürdür and Asplund, 2018).

(Source: BAIN, 2022)

A significant developer of virtualized network software and voice, data, and communications products for UK-based operators, Microsoft announced in May that it would purchase Metaswitch Networks. This shows the future prospect of the companies’ concerning mergers and integrations. According to the Redmond-based software business, Microsoft is expanding its services for the telecoms market with Metaswitch's complementing range of extremely high-performance, cloud native communications software. The deal's financial details were kept under wraps by the two parties for now (CCS, 2022).

The above discussion clearly shows how the opportunity for merger and integration agreements is high since industry participants have large cash on the margins and the opportunity to further enhance debt financing (especially in the UK, USA and China). Huge foreign players as well as large local operators have the highest cash reserves. However, historical data reveals that capital productivity gains in the telecommunications industry plateau around EUR 70 billion in revenue (Bodner and Capron, 2018). The advantages of further mergers and integrations will likely be becoming less appealing for these corporations as a number of significant competitors have already exceeded that level and others are nearing it, thus it is not totally obvious how the major operators will operate throughout the coming decade. If one look at the big players, one will notice a wide range of opinions on this.

(Source: BAIN, 2022)

Excell Group, a major UK cloud as well as workspace provider, has been added to Wavenet's portfolio of cloud and workspace services and solutions as part of the company's strategy to expand its offerings. Wavenet Group's position as one of the UK's top managed service providers to organizations for completely integrated data, voice, cloud, as well as IT will be greatly bolstered as a result of this transaction. As a result of both organic as well as acquisitive growth since its foundation, Excell Group has developed a successful business centre solution for landlords and serviced office providers (Salkin et.al., 2018). There has been a third wavenet acquisition while Macquarie Capitals became controlling owner 6 months ago. Wavenet currently serves over 10,000 enterprises and generates over £100 million in revenue annually as a result of the purchase of NTS Communications and Internal Systems Limited.

With the acquisition of Excell, Wavenet can now offer its clients a wider range of products and services, as well as a genuine London presence as well as a specialised business centre infrastructure arm. This shows how the company have been on the verge of attaining high share price and growth in profits in the upcoming future. Regarding the abundance of mergers and acquisitions that have taken place in the last 2 years, the in-country industry convergence trend appears to be picking up steam. The analysis shows that operators are pursuing in-country consolidation to enhance their cost position via scale, establish synergies, and get access to crucial assets such as spectrum, which are critical to their business (Katz, 2021). Major businesses in adjoining value chains, such as Google, Apple, and the global IT service providers, are putting pressure on most telecoms to expand aggressively into new markets to achieve profitable growth. In order to achieve short-term benefits, some organisations are acquiring merchants, B2B service providers, and media enterprises. To grow their main company in the long run, they are investing in complementary businesses by buying other digital media companies as well as IT services and software players. Operators are expanding their possible expansion choices by doing this. Because some of these choices may not come to fruition, the stakes are higher, but those that do might place operators in the long-term IT, communications, and media value chain in the best possible way Making such a change has its own set of difficulties (Gilbert and Katz, 2021). For operators, the current competitive landscape — a limited number of in-country peers — may soon be transformed into an open free-for-all as more and more global competitors enter the fray. For B2B or B2C companies that have purchased assets in neighbouring markets, the difficulties of merging players with vastly different corporate and operating methods is highlighted. Traditional telecom corporations may "stifle" recently acquired firms if integration and value development strategies are not adequately thought out in advance (Cabral, 2021). As a result, telcos and their boards will have to rethink the measures they use to measure success. Despite the fact that these adjacent firms perform less well on standard telecom criteria like EBITDA margins, they display considerably better returns on invested capital (ROIC) and development, making their entire value generation capabilities stronger than those of telcos. Depending on how each of these aspects evolves, the telecom industry's merger and integration activity will change. This requires that the companies within the telecommunications sector timely acknowledge the growing possibilities of integration and competition (Loertscher and Marx, 2019). Sooner or later, competition within the dynamic environment is only going to increase and therefore, it is highly suggested that these companies appropriately measure the success rate such that they do not turn into failure and growth and success could lead the way.

Conclusion

Research shows that mergers are not a short-term predictor of short-term financial gains for both the merged firms. According to the findings, companies goes or chooses to undertake these mergers and integrations as they found it beneficial as pertinent to the accomplishment of their aim of becoming the top most leader in the industry. While one single company may go into the competitive and dynamic environment but it will require the courage to fight, and stand out others in the competition. Considering this, the companies have been undertaking the approach of integration and merger such that they can have the benefit of economies of scale and can successfully outrun others in the market. It can be seen from the findings section how several telecommunication companies such as Wavenet, O2, Virgin Media and others have been utilizing this strategy to seek the benefits associated with it.

It is necessary that the companies so involved follow certain aspects such that the desired merger or integration does not result into failure. The major goal of mergers and acquisitions is to increase a company's long-term profitability and competitiveness. We may conclude that corporations combining do so in an effort to expand their market share, develop their goods, and ensure that they will be a going concern for some time to come. The future of mergers should be centred on future advantages that may be realised rather than on current gains, as a result of this. Because of this, it is imperative that management of the various merging firms accurately assess post-merger synergies without bias to short-term gains. Non-market-based methodologies of synergy evaluation should be used by regulators to evaluate performance of bidders and acquirers, according to the research. Prior to and following a merger, this may serve to create reasonable doubts. Effective methods should be designed and implemented by corporations and the stock exchange to decrease insider trading and improve the integrity of securities trading.

It is becoming progressively difficult to justify cross-border merger and integrations in light of the development of mobile marketplaces across most countries. It is not clear how far we can integrate with the competitors and yet maintain adequate uniqueness in the market. Are comprehensive mergers possible in some countries? What efforts should we take to persuade regulators about the long-term consequences of any deal? The main business has a bright future, but what are its economics? As a result of our assets and competencies, what is our "right to play" in the neighbouring markets? Because of this, how much of a need and opportunity do we have to start new enterprises outside of the core? What are the best ways to leverage mergers and integrations to expand our business into new markets? Furthermore, business executives should coordinate their merger and integrations efforts. Many operators worldwide are undertaking substantial strategy transformations today and that will be critical that their merger and integrations aims be aligned to complement the new strategic guidance in a positive manner.  Consequently, it is probable that telecom strategy and merger and integration operations will need to work closely together over the next few years. Telecommunication companies must also alter their mergers and integrations skills and working methods in order to aggressively explore a wide range of prospects that are in line with their strategic needs. If the merger and integration team is not set up effectively, this might include making sure they have the right competencies and capacity. A company's merger and integration strategy, organisation and how acquisitions are sourced internationally need to be clarified by its leaders, especially if it is aggressively pursuing new adjacent industries that have diverse value characteristics. As a result of these developments, it is anticipated that the present multi-trillion-dollar merger and integration activity will continue to shape the sector in the future. In order to maximise value, operators need to examine their strategy, competencies and merger and integration set-up, as well as comprehend the past to get a sense of what is yet to come.

The researcher in this research have used secondary data to examine the impact of mergers on the performance of publicly traded companies' shares. Because these data were originally acquired for different purposes, their accuracy and validity must be taken into account when drawing conclusions from this research. In order to quantify profitability before and after a merger announcement, it is necessary that the company’s employee share returns as well as cumulative share returns to do so. There are several limitations of this study. Non-financial performance measures, such as customer and market share, were not examined by the researcher. Other financial metrics, such as profitability ratios, were not examined in this study.

The future impact of insider trading on stock performance and speculation should be thoroughly assessed in the future. While there are merger rumours circulating, it would be helpful to understand the responses of possible stockholders. Insider trading has a tremendous impact on the share prices within the stock market because it provides traders with critical inside information. In the future, researchers might perform studies using different metrics of profitability, such as dividend yield, earnings before and after tax, return on assets, and return on equity. It is also possible to look at non-financial success metrics such as an expanded client base and market presence following a merger, as well as the acquisition of quality employees and the development of a winning corporate culture. There should be more research done to help management and shareholders better understand the considerations that come to the fore when considering a merger. These prospective studies will also provide light on why consolidations fail to yield economies of scale. Finally, it is necessary to investigate the impact of post-merger management and corporate culture changes on financial performance.

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