👉 Background: Target and Kmart are two of the big-box Aussie retailers and they are both owned by Wesfarmers. Yep, that's the same Wesfarmers which owns other retailers like Bunnings, Officeworks, and Priceline.

👉 What happened: Now, Wesfarmers has decided to merge Kmart and Target together into a $10 billion entity. The idea is that Target and Kmart will stay as separate consumer-facing businesses, but on the back end, they'll be integrating their processes and their technology together.

👉 What else: They want to introduce Kmart's back-end tech into Target - its underperforming cousin. And this will supposedly help them amp up their productivity, and cut down their costs.

What's the key learning?

💡Just like an economy rises and falls, the volume of mergers and demergers rise and fall too.

💡While we saw a boom of 61 public M&A deals in 2021, this was down by almost 50% in 2022, and even more so in 2023. As a result, we see more 'consolidation' moves like this one at Wesfarmers. This can help a company cut out excess costs and use each others' strengths - or what's called "synergies".

💡So, essentially Wesfarmers is combining the best bits of both the brands. And ultimately... give the most value to their customers, their shareholders, and thrive in the current economy.

‍