Business Amalgamations

Consolidation or amalgamation is the act of merging many things into one.

In business, it often refers to the mergers or acquisitions of many smaller companies into much larger ones.

The financial accounting term consolidation refers to the aggregated financial statements of a group company as a consolidated account. Taxation-term consolidation refers to the treatment of a group of companies and other entities as one entity for tax purposes. According to Halsbury's Laws of England, "amalgamation" is defined as "a blending together of two or more companies into one company, the shareholders of each blending company, becoming, in essence, the shareholders of the mixed companies. There may be amalgamations, either by transfer of two or more undertakings to a new company, or to the transfer of one or more companies to an existing company. Thus, the two concepts are essentially the same. In business, it often refers to the mergers or acquisitions of many smaller companies into much larger ones. However, the term amalgamation is more common when the organisations merged are private schools or regiments.