Changing Corporate Structure to Respond to an Acquisition

Paper instructions:
Changing Corporate Structure to Respond to an Acquisition

Objectives

The aim of this assignment is to help learner understand changes to a firm that arise as a result of acquiring a competitor.

Instructor Comments

Annual reports host a wealth of information. Annual reports can also differ with one version being filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission while a different version is hosted by

the company website. This assignment challenges learners to assess how an acquisition by one major North American grocery chain of another might alter the resulting organization. Often

annual reports are associated with financial statements. They also contain a wealth of information about a company’s operations. In this instance information available on the website of Sobeys

and Safeway provide analysts with insight regarding executive teams, markets served, store brands, distribution networks, store locations, and number of employees.

Assignment

You should base your responses to the following questions on the insight found on the following websites.

•U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission http://www.sec.gov.
•Yahoo! Finance http://finance.yahoo.com.
•Safeway Inc. Factbook http://www.safeway.ca.
•Sobeys Annual Report http://www.sobeys.com.

Assume that Safeway Inc. has acquired Sobeys. When using the Safeway website, please make use of The Factbook under the Investors heading.

Please answer the following questions. In your opinion, how might this acquisition affect:

•The make-up of the executive teams of both companies,
•The geographic markets served of both firms,
•The stored brands offered by both firms,
•The distribution network of both firms,
•The store locations of both firms, and
•The overall number of employees,

Please limit your response to this assignment to three single spaced, typed pages. Please cite your sources in the text and please reference them at the end of your assignment. Please end

your write-up with one paragraph that summarizes what you think is the importance of this assignment.