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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Company takeovers are not good for employees' jobs or incomes, nor for the revenue of the companies involved. This is the conclusion of a new study by economist Jakob Beuschlein from the ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin). ‘Many takeovers are accompanied by layoffs and therefore lower incomes for employees. And even those who keep their jobs often have to accept lower wage increases,’ says Beuschlein.
After five years, the employees' labour incomes were around 9 per cent lower than if they had worked in similar companies that were not involved in takeovers. The majority of the income losses come from redundancies, as 30 per cent of jobs in the combined companies are cut on average. Employees then either experience unemployment or move to other companies where they also earn less. But even for those employees who remained in employment, wages were 1.5 per cent lower after five years than in comparable companies. The main reason for this was lower wage growth among these employees.
The number of jobs in the acquiring companies initially increases mechanically by 37 per cent. After five years, however, it is only 19 per cent higher than in comparable companies. The same applies to sales. They initially increase by 20 per cent. But after five years, they are only 5 per cent higher than those of comparable companies. Looking at both companies together, sales after five years are on average 40 per cent lower than in comparable companies. Thousands of company acquisitions in Sweden between 1997 and 2018 were examined.
In English and German:
Dr. Jakob Beuschlein; j.beuschlein@rfberlin.com; 0049 160 796 04 14
‘The Labour Market Consequences of Acquisitions’ by Jakob Beuschlein, Jósef Sigurdsson and Horng Chern Wong; RFBerlin Discussion Paper No. 76/25
Published here: https://www.rfberlin.com/network-paper/the-labor-market-consequences-of-acquisit...
https://www.rfberlin.com/research-insights/who-loses-when-firms-are-bought/ RFBerlin Research Insight: “Who Loses When Firms Are Bought: Labor Market Effects of Acquisitions” by Jakob Beuschlein, Jósef Sigurdsson and Horng Chern Wong
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