You are going into Business Management, and all the answers can be found either in text books or by Google.

It is the technical points of the two companies coming together, here you mention merger, which two companies as whole entity merge together as one. In other postings you mentioned "acquisition" which means buying over the company. For one company to buy over the other, it has to get more than 50% of the share stocks, and the Chief Executive Officer of the board of Directors will be dominated by the major stock holder.

Let me see if I can finger a website for all these references and come back to you, but for the sake of those who are not in the business circle, there are different types of conglomerates which is subjective to law of the country. For instance, before the present Government, India has a restriction from foreign ownership of a company operating in the nation. Most countries enforce this policy, especially for companies operation which has something to do with National Defence and Security.

However, we are witnessing an increase in the number of mergers and acquisition, when the business is getting into tough times. This is in most cases, and for some special cases, may be due to the demise of the principal owner, or mass exodus of its key people.

Back to your question. There are two parts of a brand name, the registered trademark of the product, and the name of the company which produces the merchandise. As Germex mentioned: Why should anyone destroys a brand name? That answers your question, unless the new owner wants to promote his/her own brand, s/he buys over the competitor to see its annihilation. That would be very expensive, and may backfire, because there are some markets which the other brand has strongholds. The big fish eats small fish situation, when the company buys over another company for its ready market. In this case, they get instant market by the acquisition or merger. But the buyer has to be much stronger than the seller.


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