Bachelor Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, Management Center Innsbruck, language: English, abstract: Mergers and acquisitions (M & A) are a form of corporate expansion and growth. They are not the only means of growth for a company, but they are an alternative to growth by internal or organic capital investments. (Sudarsanam,(1995) p. 1) The first decade of the new millennium was an era of global mega-mergers. Several factors like readily available credit, low interest rates, technological change and global competition fueled M & A activity and in 2007, M & A transactions reached a new record dollar volume worldwide. (DePamphilis, (2011) p. 13-14) Mergers and acquisitions are an important means of removing underperforming managers or companies and transferring resources to where they are most needed. (DePamphilis, (2011) p. 124) However, there is considerable evidence that many M & A activities remain unsuccessful. Estimated failure rates are typically between 60 and 80 percent. (Homburg and Bucerius, (2006) p. 347) Due to these high failure rates, it seems unreasonable for a company to engage in an M & A transaction, but still, more and more companies decide to do exactly that. Given the high failure rates of mergers and acquisitions, this topic is one that is of high significance and has been extensively researched in the past. This paper aims to collect the most important research that has been done on the topic of M & A motive, structure it and emphasize crucial findings. The first part of this paper introduces the reader to the world of mergers and acquisitions. After defining mergers and acquisitions, a brief overview of the various types and objectives is given. The next part of the paper informs the reader about the different motives, which may lead executives to engage in M & A transactions. Because shareholder value is essential to almost all firms, it is drawn upon as a framework to organize M & A motives in this paper. The last chapter of this paper summarizes the most important points and emphasizes some of the most crucial factors that make M & A transactions successful. This paper relies on literature study and research and is not empirical.