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Please tell me how you were involved in the alliance relationship between your firm and _____________ [partner firm]. What type of responsibilities did you have? What was the extent of your interaction with ____________ [partner firm]?
Why did your company form the alliance with _______________ [partner firm]? What were the objectives of the relationship?
What functional activities did the alliance involve (for example, manufacturing, marketing, R&D)?
Did your company acquire an equity stake in _______________ [partner firm]? [if yes]: Can you tell me why an equity stake was purchased?
How did ___________ [partner firm] appear on your company's radar as a potential alliance partner?
Did your firm go through a formal due diligence process in assessing _________ [partner firm] as an alliance partner? At what level was this assessment made -top management or at the business unit level?
Please tell me about the quality of the relationship your firm had with ____________ [partner firm]:
· Was it easy to work with them? (why/why not?)
· Was there a high degree of cooperation? (why/why not?)
· Did you trust your partner? (why/why not?)
· Were you able to communicate easily with them? (why/why not?)
· How frequently did personnel from both firms meet?
· How many people were involved from both companies?
Would you consider the alliance successful? Why/why not?
Was the intent to acquire __________ [partner firm] present at the time your firm formed the alliance? If so, why did you first enter into an alliance with them?
At what point in the whole process did it become apparent to your company that __________ [partner firm] was a potential acquisition target?
Were you involved in the decision-making process leading to the acquisition of __________ [partner firm]? How were you involved in this process?
Why did your firm acquire ____________ [partner firm]? What specific resources that they possessed made the acquisition attractive? [e.g., technology, managers, engineers/R&D group, geographic presence]
What was the expected value to your firm that the alliance relationship did not provide?
Was there any resistance from _________ [partner firm] to the acquisition offer?
Was there any resistance within your company?
Were there other bidders present? Did your company have preferential access to ________ [partner firm] as compared to other potential bidders?
Did the fact that your company had an existing alliance relationship with ____________ [partner firm] influence your firm's decision to acquire them? [if yes]: In what ways? [if no]: why do you think it didn't influence the acquisition decision?
Did the alliance relationship help you evaluate _______________ [partner firm] as a viable acquisition target? For example, did it allow you to better understand the quality of the firm and its resources and its potential value as part of your firm?
Did the alliance hinder your evaluation of _____________ [partner firm] as an acquisition target?
Other than evaluating the quality of ___________ [partner firm] as an acquisition target, did the existing alliance relationship help your firm in the acquisition process in other ways?
Do you think the alliance hindered the acquisition process? In what ways?
Did your company look for other firms that would have offered similar benefits as ________ [partner firm] and compare them as potential acquisition targets? Why/why not?
As part of the decision making process to acquire ___________ [partner firm], did your firm collect information about them from any of your other partners?
What type of responsibilities did you have after completing the acquisition? What was the extent of your interaction with ____________ [partner firm] after the acquisition?
To what extent was ___________ [partner firm] integrated into your company after the acquisition? Was it left largely intact as a subsidiary or was it absorbed into your firm?
How was this level of integration accomplished? What specific changes were made to ________ [partner firm] and your firm to achieve this integration?
To your knowledge, has your firm faced any challenges in integrating _____________ [partner firm]? What have been the challenges?
Do you think the prior alliance relationship with _____________ [partner firm] had any effect on these integration challenges? Did the prior alliance make integration easier? In what ways?
Did the prior alliance make integration difficult? In what ways?
Do you consider the acquisition to be a success? Why/ why not?
Do you think the prior alliance relationship with _____________ [partner firm] had any influence on the level of success of the acquisition? In what ways?
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