an island. All strike contracts and compete with others. Conversely, when bosses decide a particular relationship would be better governed by fiat, one firm may acquire another. Between these poles are plenty of ways for firms to combine capital, knowledge or other resources, without fully tying the knot.s) and partnerships jumped by 40%, according to Ankura, a consultancy.
Quasi-mergers are not new. Firms have long teamed up to manage project costs, new technologies and manufacturing-obsessed governments. This year Renault of France and Nissan of Japan are celebrating a quarter-century of the sector’s biggest alliance, which Mitsubishi, another Japanese firm, joined in 2016.Aerospace, an American industrial firm, and Safran, a French one, has been making aircraft engines since the 1970s.
The $16m investment in Mistral, announced in February, may be tiny but helps bring France’s best shot at becoming ansuperpower into Microsoft’s orbit. Even more creatively, in March Microsoft stunned the tech world with a “no-deal” deal whereby senior employees at Inflectiondecamped to Microsoft. The startup’s other investors are reportedly being compensated by an unusual licensing agreement. .