Editing Mergers and acquisitions (section)

====Long-run factors====
In the long run, due to desire to keep costs low, it was advantageous for firms to merge and reduce their transportation costs thus producing and transporting from one location rather than various sites of different companies as in the past. Low transport costs, coupled with [[economies of scale]] also increased firm size by two- to fourfold during the second half of the nineteenth century. In addition, technological changes prior to the merger movement within companies increased the efficient size of plants with capital intensive assembly lines allowing for economies of scale. Thus improved technology and transportation were forerunners to the Great Merger Movement. In part due to competitors as mentioned above, and in part due to the government, however, many of these initially successful mergers were eventually dismantled. The U.S. government passed the [[Sherman Act]] in 1890, setting rules against [[price fixing]] and monopolies. Starting in the 1890s with such cases as [[Addyston Pipe and Steel Company v. United States]], the courts attacked large companies for strategizing with others or within their own companies to maximize profits. Price fixing with competitors created a greater incentive for companies to unite and merge under one name so that they were not competitors anymore and technically not price fixing.

The economic history has been divided into ''Merger Waves'' based on the merger activities in the business world as:

{|class="wikitable"
|- style="background:#eee;"
!Period
!Name
!Facet <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://home.kpmg.com/za/en/home/insights.html|title=Insights {{!}} KPMG {{!}} ZA|date=2016-11-15|website=KPMG|language=en-GB|access-date=2017-12-11}}</ref>
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| 1893–1904
|First Wave
|Horizontal mergers
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| 1919–1929
|Second Wave
|Vertical mergers
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| 1955–1970
|Third Wave
|Diversified conglomerate mergers
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| 1974–1989
|Fourth Wave
|Co-generic mergers; Hostile takeovers; Corporate Raiding
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| 1993–2000
|Fifth Wave
|Cross-border mergers, mega-mergers
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| 2003–2008
|Sixth Wave
|Globalisation, Shareholder Activism, Private Equity, LBO
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| 2014– 
|Seventh Wave
|Generic/balanced, horizontal mergers of Western companies acquiring emerging market resource producers. Reverse Mergers, Spac Mergers
|}