There is a belief among certain business people that buying companies is a way of building and growing a company. But the reality is that making acquisitions is something that businesses can benefit from throughout their lifespan, even once they are comfortably established.
Take Google, for example. The search engine has recently announced its plans to buy the travel guide publisher Frommer's, as well as other travel publishing assets, from Wiley & Sons as it looks to support its existing content with further expansion.
A spokeswoman from Google explained that the Frommer's team and content will be “a great addition to the Zagat team” - Zagat being a restaurant review guide publisher purchased by Google last September.
The representative added that Google “can't wait to start working … to provide a review for every relevant place in the world”. With this in mind, Google could have invested money into its own expansion and built up new departments to create and develop additional review content. But by buying an existing business, the technology firm is gaining the experience of an established publisher, as well as a team of people in place to deliver.
Google's news comes just as the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has cleared the merger of Instagram and Facebook. There is no need to refer the deal to the Competition Commission and Facebook's $1 billion offer looks set to go through.
Both Facebook and Google are enormous, multi-billion dollar companies. But they both found good reason to purchase additional companies. Ultimately, there is no single time when it is right to buy another business. We've seen people who are just starting out find small companies to run as a one-man band; small businesses keen to take on a similar existing business in order to expand geographically and, of course, big name brands looking to offer new services to their customers.
Buying a business can benefit all of these groups in different ways – what they have in common is the sense to carefully research each acquisition and prepare their own business to strike when the market is right. 
Bring to the market this leasehold specialist car sales and servicing facility located in Horncastle, Lincolnshire. The trade was established as a limited company in 2005.
LEASEHOLD
The company is an online vehicle purchasing platform, providing a fast, hassle-free car-selling service for the end user. A competitor to the likes of webuyanycar.com and Motorway, the company is a well-established online vehicle purchasing platform...
Bringing to the market this denim and casual wear retailer, boating a user friendly comprehensive online presence.
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