Book excerpt: Merger mania is at an all-time peak. Yet up to 80 percent of mergers fail because of culture clashes, mismanagement, and the chaos that ensues. Taking this failure rate into account, merger experts Thomas M. Grubb and Robert B. Lamb have written the first book that arms managers with strategies to exploit the many growth and profit opportunities created when competitors are coping with merger chaos. Grubb and Lamb show why firms miss huge financial opportunities when they stay passive while their competitors struggle in merger chaos. They present a fast-paced primer for action when your corporate rivals merge, based on six strategies: Attack your competitors when they are distracted by their mergers' turmoil and confusion. Create a "magnet strategy" to attract and hire your merging competitors' best people while their companies are in a state of merger shock. Use the threat to your firm's survival caused by giant competitors' mergers in order to jump-start your own internal change. Use multiple alliances, networks, licensing, franchising, or joint ventures -- instead of mergers -- to fuel explosive growth. Plan and execute your firm's fast-track mergers and acquisitions. Create a composite strategy by using two or more of the above strategies simultaneously to maximize your growth and profitability. The authors analyze winning strategies at AOL, General Electric, Dell, Ford, Cisco Systems, and Vodaphone as well as failures at Coca Cola, Boeing, Union Pacific, Compaq, and Sunbeam. The result is "must" reading for operating managers at all levels, investment bankers, and mergers and acquisition specialists.