Merging Cultures in International Mergers and Acquisition - A Case Study of Lenovo’s Acquisition of IBM PC Division

Abstract

This article investigates how the leadership of Lenovo and IBM PC Division integrated their corporate cultures after Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM PC Division. The study identified some post-acquisition cultural integration challenges between Lenovo and IBM PC Division such as: Language and communication differences, power distance, different leadership and managerial styles and difficulties in socializing Lenovo’s corporate culture and IBN PC’s corporate culture into a shared corporate culture. In view of this, the authors recommended that Lenovo and IBM PC Division should build structures, procedures and working environment which promote cultural synergy and adopt a cultural relativistic policy. The authors adopted personal interview data generated by earlier researchers. The data was analysed using a hermeneutic approach of data analysis..