---
id: "claim-interdependence-attracts-developers"
type: "claim"
source_timestamps: ["§ Strategies for Pursuing Ecosystem Synergies"]
tags: ["product-strategy", "developer-relations"]
related: ["framework-strategies-pursuing-synergies", "action-acquire-for-interdependence"]
confidence: "high"
testable: true
speakers: ["Natalie Burford", "Andrew Shipilov", "Nathan Furr"]
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/when-evaluating-an-ma-opportunity-consider-the-broader-digital-ecosystem"
source_title: "When Evaluating an M&A Opportunity, Consider the Broader Digital Ecosystem"
sources: ["ecosystem"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-ecosystem"
originDay: 11
articleStem: "hbr-cl-80-ma-digital-ecosystem"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/when-evaluating-an-ma-opportunity-consider-the-broader-digital-ecosystem"
sourceTitle: "When Evaluating an M&A Opportunity, Consider the Broader Digital Ecosystem"
---
# Component Interdependence Boosts Third-Party Developer Attraction

**Confidence:** high · **Testable:** yes

When a firm acquires targets that increase the **interdependence** among its own suite of products (making them work together more seamlessly), it achieves two outcomes:

1. It boosts **internal efficiency**.
2. More importantly for ecosystems, it makes the expanded product suite **more attractive to third-party developers** ([[concept-complementors]]).

The authors note the data shows strong evidence of firms **deliberately** choosing interdependent targets specifically in pursuit of these ecosystem synergies. This claim is the empirical backbone of the first heuristic in [[framework-strategies-pursuing-synergies]] and the manager action [[action-acquire-for-interdependence]].

**Enrichment note:** This mechanism connects to broader work on modularity and architectural fit — highly interdependent, cohesive suites lower integration friction and raise complementor participation. It is consistent with the platform-economics backdrop in [[prereq-platform-economics]].