acquisition

If a company buys another company outright, or accumulates enough shares to take a controlling interest, the deal is described as an acquisition.

The acquiring company's motive may be to expand the scope of its products and services, to make itself a major player in its sector, or to fend off being taken over itself.

To complete the deal, the acquirer may be willing to pay a higher price per share than the price at which the stock is currently trading. That means shareholders of the target company may realize a substantial gain, so some investors are always on the lookout for companies that seem ripe for acquisition.

Sometimes acquisitions are described, more bluntly, as takeovers and other times, more diplomatically, as mergers. Collectively, these activities are referred to as mergers and acquisitions, or M&A, to those in the business.

The process of adding to the holdings of a records center or archives by transfer under an established and legally based procedure, by deposit, purchase, gift, or bequest An addition so acquired See also accession.

In satellite communications, the process of locking tracking equipment on a signal from a communications satellite. 2. The process of achieving synchronization. 3. In servo systems, the process of entering the boundary conditions that will allow the loop to capture the signal and achieve lock-on.