Introduction CEMEX is one of the largest companies in the world that produces a variety of building materials and cement. CEMEX is headquartered in Mexico, but the company’s production capacities are spread all over the globe. Being established in the 1900s as a small cement company, CEMEX expanded globally focusing on acquisitions as the main strategy in the 1990s-2000s (Hill and Jones c337). During the period of 2008-2010, the company was experiencing significant financial falls and decreases in profitability associated with the acquisition of the Australian-based Rinker Group in 2007 that was followed with the reduced demand in products and debt burden (Black par. 2). Analysis of the Company’s Strategy CEMEX became one of the largest cement producers in the world because of focusing on acquiring different manufacturers all over the globe and adding to the assortment of produced building materials. Acquisition is discussed as the company’s main strategy, and it has particular features characteristic for the CEMEX’s specific approach. Thus, the corporation’s leaders choose the company to acquire while focusing on such conditions as high expected returns, promising geographical presence, and obvious contribution to CEMEX’s capital structure (Hill and Jones c337). Rinker Group was selected according to these criteria as a profitable company that helped to promote CEMEX’s position in the sphere of ready-mix products (“Rinker Target Statement” 4). The other important factor is the development of the integration that follows the acquisition process. After the acquisition, CEMEX experts are oriented to examining the best practices that are used in acquired companies, to standardizing the most effective approaches, and to adopting or integrating them within the corporation’s management and production process (Lessard and Reavis 6). This approach is based on sharing resources and capabilities, and it can be discussed as effective in order to integrate the most effective strategies, to enhance the company’s development, to focus on innovation in production, to cut operational and production costs, and to increase the overall efficiency (Hill and Jones 345). However, in relation to the Rinker Group acquisition, the standard strategy followed by CEMEX was not effective, and the corporation faced the problem of the debt burden. It is important to state that the problem was in the fact that the acquisition was rather high-risk. Concentrating on the possibilities for the geographical expansion, CEMEX overestimated the economic advantages of the acquisition. CEMEX followed the standard procedure of acquisition without paying attention to the changing economic environments (Hill and Jones c339). Furthermore, the overall costs of acquisition were extremely high, and risks associated with the possible failure were also high. Pre-acquisition screening was not appropriate to predict the experienced problems (Hill and Jones 372). In this context, CEMEX became blocked in its attempts to generate and use free cash flows, to use the advantages of synergies, and to use the post-merger integration strategy effectively. Works Cited Black, Thomas. Cemex Wins Control of Rinker with $14.2 Billion Offer . 2007. Web. Hill, Charles, and Gareth Jones. Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach . New York: Cengage Learning, 2012. Print. Lessard, Donald, and Cate Reavis. CEMEX: Globalization “The CEMEX Way” . 2009. PDF file. Web. Rinker Target Statement . 2006. PDF