Mergers and acquisition (M&A) is a strategy within the business administration field that a company can use to increase firm value. In today’s business world, many M&As do not deliver the expected results. An M&A outcome can be affected by many different factors along the M&A process. The M&A process can be divided into two phases, the pre and the post M&A phase. The M&A process goes from the pre phase to the post phase when ownership is transferred from the acquired firm to the acquiring firm. Present research focus on either the pre or post M&A phase. Scholars highlight that very little research has been done about the interrelation between the pre and post critical success factors, which can be crucial towards the outcome of the M&A.

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how the M&A outcome is influenced by interrelations between critical success factors as well as the overlapping of critical success factors between the M&A phases.

This dissertation is qualitative with an explorative research strategy and has an abductive research approach. Explorative research was performed in order to test a model and explain the research question. The empirical data was collected through interviews with senior employees at multinational companies.

The new findings in this dissertation can be interpreted as; that the M&A process might not be strictly divided into two phases, but can be seen as one process where all the parts work together for the best possible outcome. Furthermore, this dissertation has used multinational companies to find answers. For further research it would be interesting and useful if the same study would be conducted among small companies with less M&A experience.