CONSOLIDATION PHASE

A stage in the life of a company or an industry in which components in the company or industry start to merge to form fewer components. These components can include product lines at the company level or companies themselves at the industry level. The consolidation of companies differs from mergers in that consolidations create new entities while mergers do not.

Let's say the video game industry is starting to mature, and its companies start to acquire other companies and join together to form larger entities; this would be an example of a consolidation phase for the industry.