Includes appendices, bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Pursuing sustainability, breadth, and excellence through scale -- Why mergers now? -- Mergers as an organizational tactic -- History and global experience -- Drivers and categories of mergers in higher education -- Success and failure : predictors and metrics -- The seven essential elements for merger success -- Evaluating the stakes when considering mergers -- Finding, evaluating, and choosing merger partners -- Negotiating the merger -- Communicating in a merger -- Leadership, resources, and managing opposition -- Merging organizational entities in a context-sensitive manner -- Managing institutional legal, corporate, and regulatory obligations in a merger -- Project management in a merger -- Creating and managing the brand : who do you want to be? -- Aftermath : as much a beginning as an end -- The role of mergers in institutional strategy.