Takeovers and Mergers - tutor2u Mini Briefs

Our takeover and merger mini-brief cards are designed to help students gain a deeper understanding of key M&A transactions. We used this during the recent CPD days on BUSS4 and obtained some great ideas from teachers about how they can be used in the classroom and as a prompt for further student research. The 30 mini-brief cards work particularly well with Ryan Cook’s superb Map of Merger Motives which provides a terrific link between examples of takeovers and mergers and key theories such as Porter’s Five Forces.

We have outlined further below some suggestions as to how the mini-briefs can be used as a classroom resource…

The Mini Briefs and Map of Merger Motives are just two of several teaching resources included in our AQA BUSS4 Section A toolkit which is published on 8 March 2012.

Suggested activities:

Part briefs: Some elements provided (e.g. buyer, seller, year); students complete the rest

Blank out the names of the businesses. Students need to work out who the mini brief refers to

Rank them in order of success

Categorise them according to type of m&a

Read the mini brief then think of a possible essay question that could be asked based on what is contained within the brief

Write a newspaper article based on the mini brief - headline, sub sections etc

Cut the mini briefs up and they need to be matched up (jigsaw style)