The Race To Embrace

摘要

Companies are getting hitched in record numbers. Yet most mergers fail. Here are lessons from the 200 Best Small Companies in America on how to improve the odds. What was James R. Swartwout doing on top of a 20-foot ladder? The 54-year-old chief executive of Torrance, Calif. -based plastics component manufacturer Summa Industries was checking out an acquisition target. An odd way of kicking the tires, perhaps—unlike that of any of the seven previous potential buyers who visited privately held Plastron Industries, the maker of "bobbins," thermoplastic parts for wound electronic components such as coils.