In business, M&A stands for ‘mergers and acquisitions’. A merger is when two or more companies combine. An acquisition is when one company purchases another and incorporates it into the larger business.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is a generally used term to describe the process of combining companies through various types of transactions. The most popular one is an acquisition, where one company buys another and transfers ownership. You can do two kinds of acquisitions; a stock sale and an asset sale.
A stock sale is where the buyer purchases the entire business entity and everything that comes with it, including assets and liabilities. Legally, the business still owns the assets and liabilities, but the buyer is the business’s new owner. On the other hand, an asset sale is where the buyer purchases a particular asset of the target business, such as a piece of equipment or intellectual property. In some instances, companies even sell an entire business segment which is called a divestiture or a corporate carve-out.