Despite decades of experience and research, many results in M&A research remain contested and inconclusive. M&A scholars have voiced concerns as to this state of affairs, lamenting the lack of integrative perspectives and theories on M&A. Below, David Faulkner, Satu Teerikangas and Richard J. Joseph approach this exercise by offering a three-dimensional model bridging the strategic, financial, and sociocultural lenses to M&A. In so doing, the authors aim to ‘re-root’ the practice and study of M&A, enabling more informed practice and future study of this significant, yet not value neutral, organizational encounter.