After the dot-com bubble many Internet companies had three strategic options to survive in the changed market situation: stay independent, acquire other companies or enter into strategic alliance with others. Since 2003, there has been a strong surge in the Internet industry with many successful Venture Capital (VC) supported startups been formed in Silicon Valley, China and India. At the same time, a stronger consolidation trend in the Internet industry is observable in all these regions.
This thesis presents and analyzes the role of Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Strategic Alliance and Venture Capital in the development of Internet industry in developing countries i.e. China and India. Many Internet Giants like eBay, Yahoo, Google and Amazon have been very active in the Internet merger and acquisition market, acquiring young innovative e-Business startups in developing countries to augment their competitive advantage and speed up their global market growth.
The aim of this thesis is to find the main motives of Silicon Valley based Internet giants behind their M&A in China and India. Secondary data analysis was applied to better understand the external factors affecting M&A process in two countries i.e. macro-economic environment, Internet Infrastructure, online user behaviors. The study also focuses on new Internet sectors which are vulnerable to M&A or VC investments. A qualitative study comprising five case studies was conducted to understand the strategy of Internet Giant’s M&A or Strategic alliance with local Chinese and Indian Internet firms. The thesis will also focus on the benefits gained by the local firms during the M&A process. The findings supports past research that the main motives behind Internet giants M&A in developing countries is to increase their market scale and to strengthen global footprint.

After the dot-com bubble many Internet companies had three strategic options to survive in the changed market situation: stay independent, acquire other companies or enter into strategic alliance with others. Since 2003, there has been a strong surge in the Internet industry with many successful Venture Capital (VC) supported startups been formed in Silicon Valley, China and India. At the same time, a stronger consolidation trend in the Internet industry is observable in all these regions.
This thesis presents and analyzes the role of Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Strategic Alliance and Venture Capital in the development of Internet industry in developing countries i.e. China and India. Many Internet Giants like eBay, Yahoo, Google and Amazon have been very active in the Internet merger and acquisition market, acquiring young innovative e-Business startups in developing countries to augment their competitive advantage and speed up their global market growth.
The aim of this thesis is to find the main motives of Silicon Valley based Internet giants behind their M&A in China and India. Secondary data analysis was applied to better understand the external factors affecting M&A process in two countries i.e. macro-economic environment, Internet Infrastructure, online user behaviors. The study also focuses on new Internet sectors which are vulnerable to M&A or VC investments. A qualitative study comprising five case studies was conducted to understand the strategy of Internet Giant’s M&A or Strategic alliance with local Chinese and Indian Internet firms. The thesis will also focus on the benefits gained by the local firms during the M&A process. The findings supports past research that the main motives behind Internet giants M&A in developing countries is to increase their market scale and to strengthen global footprint.

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