Legal Challenges of Consolidation: Who Approves, How Approvals Are Made and On What Basis Are Decisions Made?.

Large companies often see opportunity in combining with other companies. The object of their desire is often a competitor. Sometimes management sees prospects for driving down costs by eliminating redundancies, or by creating new sources of revenue with new products or serving new markets. These potential benefits are often described in terms of “unlocking shareholder value,” “cost synergies,” or “growth synergies.” Hostile or friendly, takeover or merger, once the boards of directors and shareholders have agreed to proceed with the combination, a merger of two global giants may be consummated only after securing the consent of antitrust regulators in accordance with a patchwork of merger control laws around the world.

An overview of these merger control laws will set the stage for a panel discussion of how some companies’ recent consolidation plans were affected by the approval process in certain jurisdictions.