Mergers and acquisitions: the impact on information systems and information technology

Recently, there have been significant corporate changes within the major contracting organizations in the UK. Mergers and acquisitions are creating large, pan‐European contractors. Such changes have a fundamental impact on the way these contractors operate. The reasons behind the increased mergers and acquisitions activities, and how these corporate changes affect information systems and information technology (IS/IT) are examined. The present paper illustrates these IS/IT changes using the acquisition of two British contractors as case studies. The results show that issues such as leadership, communications and culture have a significant impact on how organizational changes are implemented.