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Newell And Rubbermaid Case Study

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At first glance, the merger of Newell and Rubbermaid seems very attractive. Newell had a proven track record of acquiring companies and turning them around to deliver shareholder value. Since the 1960s, Newell had made over 35 strategic acquisitions of commodity producing manufacturing firms with low operating margins. Acquisitions usually added to shelf space, increase supplier power and rounded out Newell’s ‘good, better, best’ multiproduct offering. Also, acquired companies were typically market leaders.

Rubbermaid was one of the most recognized brands in the world, known for its innovative products and marketing. It also seemed that there was potential for synergies, especially if one looked at the customer base and distribution channels of the two firms. But the $5B acquisition of Rubbermaid would be their largest till date, and question to ask would be can Newell turn the company around to ensure higher margins and ROI within a targeted period of time?

We can analyse the various synergies that could be achieved from this merger using the Eccles-Lane-Wilson Framework in Exhibit 1.

No doubt the aim of the acquisition would be to ‘Newellize’ Rubbermaid- If we were to assume that Newell would expect to make major changes in the first two years to achieve cost savings and increase revenues, we would have to assume that Newell would achieve synergies across cost and revenues right from the get go. Given that revenues of $2.4B and net income of $142M, and administrative

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