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This paper examines the motives as well as consequences of M&As between companies with varying degree of technological overlap. High-overlap merging companies, with more collaboration between the original inventors, produce more patents and go deeper in the existing fields. In contrast, low-overlap couples, with larger fraction of new inventors, experience bigger technology shifts and explore fresher areas with higher commercial values. Importantly, M&A completion facilitates technology transformation more than what the two companies, especially pairs with low overlap, could have accomplished on their own. Overall, direction of innovation is an important motive for technology-driven acquisitions.