Friends and Influence: How Scottish & Newcastle Became the UK’s Largest Brewer

Firms engage in a multitude of interactions with the external environment, one of the most important of which is government and its regulatory agencies. Despite an extensive „regulatory capture‟ literature little attention has been given to the crucial interactions between merging firms and competition authorities. This paper charts the merger history of Scottish & Newcastle and its landmark acquisition of Courage that created the UK‟s largest brewer. The Scottish & Newcastle story addresses directly the question of capture in the merger process; gaming the „public interest provision‟. Entrepreneurship, in terms of exerting political influence, is shown to be a key determinant when crafting a successful corporate strategy that is reliant on growth by mergers and acquisitions