1. The Highland Instrument Company has revenues of about $300 million per year.

Its management is interested in expanding into a new type of product manufactured primarily by Lowland Gauge Inc., a firm with sales of about $200 million annually. Both firms are publicly held with a broad base of stockholders. That is, no single interest holds a large percentage of the shares of either firm. Describe the types of business combination that might be available for the two firms.

Include ideas like merger, consolidation, acquisition, friendly, and hostile. How would Highland’s management get started? Do the relative sizes of the two firms have any implications for the kinds of combination that are possible or likely?