Analog Devices

The Analog Devices case explores the complexities of strategy execution post-acquisition. Analog Devices, facing industry consolidation and struggling with the internal challenges associated with developing a critical technology organically, decides to use an acquisition strategy to gain the resources they need to compete effectively. ADI's CEO, Vincent Roche, embarks upon a three-year courtship of Linear Technologies, attempting to convince their CEO and founder to sell the firm. After three years and successively higher offers, Bob Swanson, LTC's founder, agreed to the merger. The case begins as ADI starts the post-merger work to integrate the two firms' operations. ADI's senior management begins to discover the differences between the two firms' cultures, styles, systems (specifically the reward systems), staffing patterns and metrics by which the firms evaluate business opportunities. In addition, ADI faces the prospect of integrating a strong culture formed by LTC's founder and Chairman, whose outsized personality was deeply imprinted in LTC's DNA. ADI's senior management were veterans of the semiconductor industry with a background in both internal operations and acquisition integration. The management team was experienced in both large- and small-scale acquisitions prior to the LTC acquisition. However, the LTC acquisition was their largest acquisition to date. Management realized the need to balance speed of integration against moving too quickly for their staff to adjust to the challenges of this complex integration. Market forces were also in play as larger competitors acquired smaller firms, and value chain activities - especially at the customer specification and design part of the value chain - were changing as customer requirements of increasingly complex production solutions were evolving.

• Management
• Mergers and acquisitions