Takeovers

Takeover Regulation in Europe and the United States: Will There Be Convergence within Europe and between Europe and the U.S.?

Dan Li, J.D. Candidate 2018, Columbia Law School Europe and the United States are both global economic powers, each leading in various areas. Over the years, economic integration between Europe and the United States increased significantly. The number of cross-border takeovers mushroomed. Much convergence was noticeable between the European and U.S. corporate governance systems. However, the regulatory takeover regimes in Europe and the U.S. remain starkly different. The prevailing view is that takeover regulations aim to maximize shareholder value – they are designed to encourage beneficial takeovers and minimize wasteful ones. To achieve the effect of encouraging beneficial takeovers, the […]

Taking Takeover Struggles to the Courts

Julian Beach J.D. Candidate, Columbia Law School, 2016 Traditionally, hostile takeovers between publicly traded companies weren’t viewed as the European way of doing business.[1] Recognized as a common form of corporate practice in the United States since the enactment of broad Federal legislation in the 1960’s, European regulators and business leaders did not turn their full attention to hostile takeovers until the late 1980s.[2] Since the 1990s, mergers and public tender offers specifically have become increasingly frequent, leading the European Commission in 2004 to enact both updated merger regulation and a Takeover Directive to tackle hostile activity.[3] However, substantive differences […]