merger

American  

[mur-jer] / ˈmɜr dʒər /

noun

1. a statutory combination of two or more corporations by the transfer of the properties to one surviving corporation.

2. any combination of two or more business enterprises into a single enterprise.

3. an act or instance of merging.

   Astronomers say that the merger of galaxies can take a billion years.

4. Phonetics. the process or phenomenon whereby two distinct speech sounds come to be pronounced identically: for instance, the cot–caught vowel merger has taken place in some dialects of English.

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merger British  

/ ˈmɜːdʒə /

noun

1. Often called (Brit): amalgamation.  commerce the combination of two or more companies, either by the creation of a new organization or by absorption by one of the others

2. law the extinguishment of an estate, interest, contract, right, offence, etc, by its absorption into a greater one

3. the act of merging or the state of being merged

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merger Cultural  

1. The union of two or more independent corporations under a single ownership. Also known as takeovers, mergers may be friendly or hostile. In the latter case, the buying company, having met with resistance from directors of the targeted company, usually offers an inflated (overmarket) price to persuade stockholders of the targeted company to sell their shares to it. Such mergers often have been financed by junk bonds.

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Especially common in the 1980s, hostile takeovers have become highly controversial. Some contend that they bring needed infusions of capital and efficiency to the targeted company. Others argue that, having borrowed heavily to finance the merger, the buyer is forced to sell valuable assets of the targeted company to pay off its debt.

Other Word Forms

• antimerger adjective
• demerger noun
• premerger adjective
• promerger adjective

Etymology

Origin of merger

First recorded in 1720–30; merge + -er ¹

Example Sentences

But the late 1990s merger between Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler and Chrysler hardly led to a turnaround for the namesake brand.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 4, 2026

SpaceX was valued at $1.25 trillion after its merger in February with xAI.

From Barron's • Apr. 3, 2026

An alternative kind of venue is offered by Cosm, which emerged after a merger involving Evans & Sutherland, a company that developed digital projection technology widely used in planetariums and science centres.

From BBC • Mar. 30, 2026

Investors tend to dislike large merger deals that include stock, because the number of shares outstanding increases.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 30, 2026

Amalgamation occurs instead in either of two ways: by merger under the threat of external force, or by actual conquest.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Related Words

• combination
• tie up
• unification
• union