Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Mergers and acquisitions
Summary
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect of strategic management, M&A can allow enterprises to grow or downsize, and change the nature of their business or competitive position.
Technically, a is the legal consolidation of two business entities into one, whereas an occurs when one entity takes ownership of another entity's share capital, equity interests or assets. A deal may be euphemistically called a "merger of equals" if both CEOs agree that joining together is in the best interest of both of their companies. From a legal and financial point of view, both mergers and acquisitions generally result in the consolidation of assets and liabilities under one entity, and the distinction between the two is not always clear.
In most countries, mergers and acquisitions must comply with antitrust or competition law. In the United States, for example, the Clayton Act outlaws any merger or acquisition that may "substantially lessen competition" or "tend to create a monopoly", and the Hart–Scott–Rodino Act requires companies to get "pre-clearance" from either the Federal Trade Commission or the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division for all mergers or acquisitions over a certain size.
An acquisition/takeover is the purchase of one business or company by another company or other business entity. Specific acquisition targets can be identified through myriad avenues, including market research, trade expos, sent up from internal business units, or supply chain analysis. Such purchase may be of 100%, or nearly 100%, of the assets or ownership equity of the acquired entity.
A consolidation/amalgamation occurs when two companies combine to form a new enterprise altogether, and neither of the previous companies remains independently owned.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.