The number of mergers and acquisitions (M&As), as a path to corporate growth, has increased on a global scale over the past two decades. While the trade press would lead us to believe that international M&As are the trend of the day, the largest proportion of M&As has been domestic (as opposed to cross-border) in nature. Thomson Financial Securities Data has documented more than 121,000 M&As in the US since 1979 and more than 157,000 non-US M&As since 1985. Over the period 1 January 1990 to 31 December 2000, more than 9,600 mergers or acquisitions involving a transportation company as the ultimate parent of the target, the target, the acquiror, or the acquiror's ultimate parent were completed. While many more were not completed or involved acquirors of unknown industry sector or nationality, significant data are available for examination. The paper provides a new perspective on the dynamic transportation industry over the last decade. It examines M&A cases involving transportation-related companies in Canada and elsewhere. Based on previous research by the author into M&A activity across all sectors internationally, it was expected that many of these cases would prove to be financial restructurings, acquisitions by property or leasing firms, or asset acquisitions. These expectations were confirmed. After excluding these purely financial deals, the balance of the paper examines the remaining cases-bona fide legal agreements where the deal implies a consolidation of the industry or a deliberate corporate strategy of diversification. The data also permit the comparison of Canadian transportation-related M&As with others globally and concludes that Canadian transportation-related M&A patterns are very similar to those in the US and the UK.
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