The assignment for chapter 8 is an article review. The assignment is worth 20 points. Check the course schedule for
the due date.
Instructions – Article Selection
1. Choose an article dealing with issues surrounding a recent combination of two companies (i.e., within the last 3
years). Such a combination is called a merger or an acquisition. The term “merger” is used when the combination
occurs under friendly circumstances and it is between two companies considered to be more or less equals. The
term “acquisition” is used when a larger firm absorbs a smaller firm. Such a combination may be on friendly terms
or occur in a hostile takeover.
• Do not choose an article that discusses mergers and acquisitions in general
• Choose an article dealing with a specific merger or acquisition (e.g., McDonald’s and Olive Garden)
2. The article should provide information on the following issues:
• What are the companies (or the acquiring company) trying to do?
• What synergies/benefits are the companies (or the acquiring company) expecting to gain from the deal?
• What are the concerns or risks to the companies involved in this particular merger/acquisition?
• NOTE: You won’t be able to answer these questions if your article doesn’t deal with a
merger/acquisition of specific companies.
3. The article needs to come from a reputable source (Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, INC., The Wall Street
Journal, Fast Company, NY Times, etc.). Do not simply use a website as your source of information. The
article must be a feature article that addresses the issues listed above in instruction number 2. You may need to
look at more than one article on a particular merger/acquisition to gather all the information in number 2 above.
The article obviously needs to be several pages long in order for you to be able to fulfill the length requirements
listed below. If the article is too short, it will be difficult to summarize and provide comments that will be 3 pages
long.
• Do not choose a press release from either of the companies involved. You will typically not find the risks
of the deal in such a document, only a positive “spin” from the company.
• Do not choose a story from a website that is not associated with a magazine, journal, or newspaper. I do
not want to see an article from sites with names like “The Federal Reserve” or “MergerAnalysis.com”. The
article needs to come from a reputable journalistic source (e.g., Wall Street Journal). I will mark down
your score substantially if this is not the case.
4. The best way to find articles is to use the MSUB Library web site since it had searchable databases that make
finding an article fairly simple. Below is the link to the MSUB library’s database for business articles if you are on
the MSUB campus. Two good databases are Business Source Complete and the Wall Street Journal. Be sure to
check the box for “full text” so that articles provided in the search results can be accessed on line. If you don’t
select “full text” in your search, some search results will only be references rather than complete articles.
http://www.msubillings.edu/library/SubjectDatabases/Business.htm
To access the Business Source Premier database from off campus, you will need a library password. Instructions
for obtaining this password are found by accessing the following link:
http://www.msubillings.edu/library/OffCampusAccess.htm
Instructions – Article Summary and Comments
1. Summarize the article. In doing so, answer the three questions posed in instruction number 2 above.
2. Comment on the article.
• What did you learn?
• What surprised you?
• What did you already know?
Instructions – Assignment Format
Failure to follow each of the format instructions will result in a reduction in the assignment grade, even if all other
aspects of the assignment are correct.
1. You must type the assignment using the following format and length requirements:
• Title page: please include a title page
• Font: Times Roman.
• Font Size: 12 pt. DO NOT USE A SIZE LARGER THAN 12 PT.
• Margins: 1 inch top, bottom, left, and right.
• Spacing: Double
• Length: The article summary and your comments should total a minimum of 3 full pages (not 2 1/3). The
summary should take up no more than 2 pages of the paper. Your comments/analysis should be at least
1 page of the paper.
• Reference: Provide a reference for the article(s) at the end of the paper.
2. Do not add an extra line between paragraphs. Since the paper is double spaced, do not use a “block style”. The
block style format, where you do not indent your first line in a paragraph, is appropriate for a single spaced paper
but not a double-spaced paper. It is common for students to mistakenly use a block style format in the article
review paper, but this causes one of two problems: (1) an extra blank line is added to separate paragraphs which
results in wasted space, or (2) no extra line is added, but since the paper does not indent the first line, it is very
difficult for me to determine where one paragraph ends and another begins. You should simply indent the first line
of each paragraph and have no extra lines between paragraphs.
3. Be sure to use the spell check and grammar check options on your word processing software. I want the
assignment to have no spelling errors or grammatical errors.
Submitting the Assignment
Please submit the assignment as a Microsoft Word file attachment in the dropbox by selecting the “Dropbox” option
from the navigation menu along the top of the page. Once in the dropbox, select “Chapter 8 Article Review.” Attach
your Word file by selecting the “Add a File” button, browsing for your file which will be located on your computer, and
then selecting the “add”, “upload”, and ultimately the “submit” buttons.
Attach the Article(s)
Please attach an electronic copy of the article(s) with the completed assignment. Do not simply provide a link to the
article. The required reference at the end of the paper, or a URL link will not be sufficient. You can cut and paste the
article(s) into a Word document and then place the article(s) in the dropbox as an attachment. By providing a
reference at the end of the paper and a copy of the article, I will be able to see how recent the article is and the
length/quality of the article.
