I suspect that all too often the decisions are made by politicians/shareholders and generals/senior executives, using high level information gathered by dubious means to rationalise their own thoughts... Apparently one report says there are still some small time suppliers who can be purchased, who could launch a new product to market in only 40 minutes. What does not tend to happen is to consider the opinion of people who have been the 'boots on the ground' in the theatre of operations; experienced real troops/technical people, who know what will be actually be required to make the operation a success. Due Diligence in these types of scenarios is not just about earnings ratio and cashflow summaries; if the newly acquired operations are to be merged then decent technical product architects have to get involved as part of the decision making process (and I don't mean Technical VPs, I mean the real grunts) As for " ... it is the duty of the 'forces' to minimise the negative impact and hold true to the long term goals" then that's fine if the 'forces' were involved, at an appropriate level, in the first place. Otherwise "Theirs is not to reason why, Theirs is just to do and pick up a P45"