This Paper argues that once undistorted shareholder choice is ensured – which can be done by making it necessary for hostile bidders to win a vote of shareholder support – boards should not have veto power over takeover bids. The Paper considers all of the arguments that have been offered for board veto – including ones based on analogies to other corporate decisions, directors’ superior information, bargaining by management, pressures on managers to focus on the short-run, inferences from IPO charters, interests of long-term share-holders, aggregate shareholder wealth, and protection of stakeholders. Examining these arguments both at the level of theory and in light of all available empirical evidence, the Paper concludes that none of them individually, nor all of them taken together, warrants a board veto. Finally, the Paper discusses the implications that the analysis has for judicial review of defensive tactics.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number
3445.
Find related papers by JEL classification: G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Corporation and Securities Law
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)