Consolidation or amalgamation is the act of merging many things into one. In
business, it often refers to the
mergers or
acquisitions of many smaller
companies into much larger ones. The
financial accounting term of consolidation refers to the aggregated
financial statements of a group company as
consolidated account. The
taxation term of consolidation refers to the treatment of a group of companies and other entities as one entity for tax purposes. Under the
Halsbury's Laws of England, 'amalgamation' is defined as "a blending together of two or more undertakings into one undertaking, the shareholders of each blending company, becoming, substantially, the shareholders of the blended undertakings. There may be amalgamations, either by transfer of two or more undertakings to a new company, or to the transfer of one or more companies to an existing company". Thus, the two concepts are, substantially, the same.
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