Business combinations such as mergers, acquisitions, and takeovers allow companies to combine in order to achieve various strategic objectives like faster growth, improved profits, market power, and cost reductions. There are different forms of business combinations including mergers where companies combine and consolidate assets, acquisitions where one company takes control of another, and takeovers which can be hostile acquisitions against management's wishes. Analyzing and executing business combinations requires careful planning, searching for suitable targets, financial evaluation, negotiation, and post-merger integration to realize expected benefits.