Resisting to the Last Shareholders' Dollar: Takeover Litigation - A Tactical Device

Abstract:     
In this paper Roman Tomasic and Brendan Pentony attempted to determine the real reasons for takeover litigation through a national series of interviews with those directly involved: lawyers, judges, company executives, regulators and bankers. The results showed that the decision to litigate had more to do with tactical considerations than a desire to determine genuine legal issues. The authors argue that litigation was generally instigated by the directors of target companies in an attempt to delay and frustrate the raider and to keep the offer away from the shareholders.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 16

Keywords: takeover litigation, tactical litigation, legal issues, directors

JEL Classification: K22, M14

Accepted Paper Series