In order to address the course learning objective. "...demonstrate your ability to justify if current Corporate Strategies work to achieve competitive advantage'..."

An eBay executive was once asked a question about some of the firm's new acquisitions. The question and his answer follows:

Q - With your other acquisitions, what have you learned about how to make them work, how to integrate them into the culture?

A - We think about acquisitions in three categories: acquisitions to strengthen our core, adjacent acquisitions, and capability acquisitions. The easiest are the first kind, like the acquisition two years ago of (the Korean auction site) Gmarket. Were letting adjacent acquisitions, such as StubHub and Bill Me Later, run relatively independently. With Bill Me Later weve integrated core capabilities into PayPal and eBay. Positronic, a small search company, is in the third category. In many cases were buying the peopleChristopher Payne, whos running eBay North America now, was a founder of Positronicwhich helps us integrate faster and acquire great talent.

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Now it is your turn. Please address the following questions:

1. What benefits would eBay have from allowing an acquired firm, such as "Bill Me Later" to function relatively independently?
2. Is it a good idea to impose the acquiring firms culture onto the acquired firms? Why? Why not?