  Studying acquisitions offers invaluable insights into startup trends, aiding
informed investment decisions for businesses. However, the scarcity of studies
in this domain prompts our focus on shedding light in this area. Employing
Crunchbase data, our study delves into the global network of company
acquisitions using diverse network analysis techniques. Our findings unveil an
acquisition network characterized by a primarily sparse structure comprising
localized dense connections. We reveal a prevalent tendency among organizations
to acquire companies within their own country and industry, as well as those
within the same age bracket. Furthermore, we show that the country, region,
city, and category of the companies can affect the formation of acquisition
relationships between them. Our temporal analysis indicates a growth in the
number of weakly connected components of the network over time, accompanied by
a trend toward a sparser network. Through centrality metrics computation in the
cross-city acquisition network, we identify New York, London, and San Francisco
as pivotal and central hubs in the global economic landscape. Finally, we show
that the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany are predominant countries
in international acquisitions. The insights from our research assist
policymakers in crafting better regulations to foster global economic growth,
and aid businesses in deciding which startups to acquire and which markets to
target for expansion.
