Diploma Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,3, University of Mannheim (Department of Business Administration and International Management), course: International Management, language: English, abstract: Since the year 2003, there has been a strong surge in the e-Business industry with many successful startups been formed in North America, Europe, China and India. At the same time, a stronger consolidation trend in the e-Business industry is observable in all regions. The number of merger and acquisition deals in the international e-Business industry has increased sharply since 2005 by 15%. This book presents and analyzes the significant mergers, acquisitions, and cooperations that were consummated in the e-Business industry between the year 2005 and the first quarter of 2007. It looks at the impact of mergers, acquisitions, and cooperations on the e-Business industry, and assesses the deals in the stated time period by analyzing the relationship between mergers, acquisitions, cooperations, market share, and competitive advantage to ascertain the strategic value that companies attain from such activities. The book is focused on e-Business companies such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Photobucket, Studiverzeichnis, Skype, Xing, Bebo, Last.fm, Gumtree, Kijiji, Joost, Tradera, Alibaba, Taobao, Xiaonei, Tom Online, etc. The book is written for all top managers and decision makers in the e-Business industry, e-Business companies, venture capital companies, e-Business Startup associations, researchers, and potential e-Business entrepreneurs.