Mergers and acquisitions can be an extremely important portion of the business. As an umbrella term ‘mergers and acquisitions’ generally refers to anything to do with buying, selling, or joining businesses and corporations. In general usage the separate regards to ‘mergers’ and ‘acquisitions’ have tended to blur together, truly mean separate and distinct things. Mergers and acquisitions (or M&A) can involve a variety of people; such as investment bankers, mergers and acquisitions solicitors, the firms themselves, and the shareholders. It can be a complicated process this also article aims to provide a basic breakdown of what mergers and acquisitions are.

What is a merger?

As the name might suggest it is where two businesses merge their assets. The result of two companies doing this is because they become one new company, or ‘surviving business’. The non-surviving company becomes a portion of the surviving company, their shares are transformed into shares inside the new company and shareholders become shareholders in the surviving company.

In comparison, an acquisition is where one company ‘acquires’ another – this might be completed by buying stock or assets. A share purchase acquisition is a place one company buys the shares of a different company. The company whose shares are ordered, the ‘target company’, turns into a subsidiary in the purchasing company. A hostile takeover happens when the target company is publicly owned as well as the shares are ordered by another company, even if the shareholders oppose purchasing.

There are usually two types of deals – … Read the rest >>>