DSV A/S
Serial acquisitions create logistics supercolony—like Argentine ants forming continental networks—where each merger multiplies connection value through network effects.
In April 2025, DSV completed its EUR 14.3 billion acquisition of DB Schenker, doubling in size overnight. The Danish logistics giant—founded in 1976 with 10 vans—now coordinates EUR 42 billion in annual revenue, 160,000 employees across 90+ countries, and an 11.1% global freight forwarding market share. This makes DSV the world's largest freight forwarder, leapfrogging Kuehne + Nagel (8.4% share) and DHL (6.1% share). The Schenker integration adds EUR 1.4 billion in projected annual synergies by 2028, with DSV committing EUR 1 billion in German market investments over 3-5 years.
This growth pattern mirrors how Argentine ants form supercolonies—distinct populations merge, eliminate intercolony aggression, and create a single cooperative network that outcompetes fragmented rivals. DSV's strategy is serial horizontal gene transfer through acquisition: absorb competitors, integrate their route networks, eliminate redundant operations, and expand the coordinated logistics mesh. The 2015 acquisition of UTi Worldwide added $4 billion revenue; the 2019 Panalpina deal added $6 billion. Each merger increases network density—more routes, more warehouses, more regional expertise—which increases value to customers (more origin-destination pairs) and decreases marginal costs (better asset utilization).
The biological insight: at a certain scale, network effects flip from linear to exponential. A logistics network with 100 nodes offers 4,950 potential connections (n*(n-1)/2); a network with 200 nodes offers 19,900 connections—a 4x increase in value from a 2x increase in nodes. DSV's projected 2025 EBIT of $2.9-3.3 billion reflects this superlinear return. The company operates like a scale-free network: a few major hubs (Copenhagen, Singapore, Rotterdam) handle disproportionate traffic, while thousands of smaller nodes provide regional coverage. The constraint isn't operational capacity—freight forwarding is capital-light. The constraint is cultural integration: making 160,000 employees from multiple acquired firms coordinate like a single supercolony, not a fragmented anthill.