The Agency Problem and Control of the Corporation, Mergers and Acquisitions
The Agency Problem and Control of the Corporation
Corporate managers are the agents of shareholders. This relation creates a problem for shareholders who must find ways to induce managers to pursue shareholders interests. Financial managers do act in the best interest of the shareholders by taking action to increase the stock value. However, in large corporations ownership can be spread over a huge number of stockholders. It has been mentioned that this agency problem arises whenever a manager owns less than 100 percent of the firm’s shares. Because the manager bears only a fraction of the cost when his behavior reduces the firm value, he is unlikely to
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The firms are often of about the same size. Both companies ' stocks are surrendered and new company stock is issued in its place. For example, in the 1999 merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham, both firms ceased to exist when they merged, and a new company, GlaxoSmithKline, was created.
• In practice, however, actual mergers of equals don 't happen very often. Usually, one company will buy another and, as part of the deal 's terms, simply allow the acquired firm to proclaim that the action is a merger of equals, even if it is technically an acquisition. Being bought out often carries negative connotations, therefore, by describing the deal euphemistically as a merger, deal makers and top managers try to make the takeover more palatable. An example of this would be the takeover of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz in 1999 which was widely referred to in the time, and is still now, as a merger of the two corporations. The buyer buys the shares, and therefore control, of the target company being purchased. Ownership control of the company in turn conveys effective control over the assets of the company, but since the company is acquired intact as a going concern, this form of transaction carries with it all of the liabilities accrued by that business over its past and all of the risks that company faces in its commercial environment.
• The buyer buys the assets of the target company. The cash the target receives from the sell-off is paid back to its shareholders by
There are certain benefits that derived from the merger, which would also boost the operations and financial performance of the organization.
Mergers and takeovers are forms of external growth within a business. External growth occurs when one firm decides to expand by joining together with another. A takeover specifically refers to the gaining control of a firm by acquiring a controlling interest in its shares (51%). Merger, on the other hand, means the joining with another firm to form a new combined enterprise, shares in each firm are exchanged for shares in the other.
Managers and shareholders are the utmost contributors of these conflicts, hence affecting the entire structural organization of a company, its managerial system and eventually to the company's societal responsibility. A corporation is well organized with stipulated division of responsibilities among the arms of the organizational structure, shareholders, directors, managers and corporate officers. However, conflicts between managers in most firms and shareholders have brought about agency problems. Shares and their trade have seen many companies rise to big investments. Shareholders keep the companies running
Merging with another organization has downfalls of destroying wealth from the merger. Considering the buying price is important when merging, spending too much on the merger will impound the value after the merger. Some mergers do not create wealth so capital is lost through the merger. There is no guarantee of financial gain and every formula considered with focus, just as with an acquisition. The final decision dictated by the variables. One company merging with another company takes the debt and losses of those companies in the new formed company.
Companies do not have the freedom to merge and acquire as they please do. All have to meet the requirements and essentially be approved by regulatory bodies. In the context of regulations, antitrust laws and security laws are commonly referred to by regulator to determine whether a merger or acquisition should be allowed or rejected. Antitrust laws prohibit mergers and acquisitions that impede competition. The point is very simple where antitrust is referred to as competition. The goal is to increase competition because more competition in economics means that consumers get more at a fairer or lower price. Anytime a regulator believes that a merger or acquisition will make an industry or market less competitive, the business transaction might
Pikula (1999) observes that in merging two or more entities, the management of the companies must adhere to the Sherman Anti-trust Act which was established in 1890. This act was specifically established to prevent mergers from creating monopolies and cartels with an aim to exploit the consumers through determining prevailing market prices. If the merger results in a monopoly, it won’t be approved by the government. Employee contractual agreements must be considered before, during and after mergers. For the merger to go on seamlessly there should be shareholder approval. Initial approval by shareholders for the companies to consolidate their operations helps prevent conflicts from shareholders after the merger. Lastly, regulatory approval should be considered. The management must register the newly formed company. In addition, managers from the merging parties must consider agreements and contracts that the parties are engaging in as these will be transferred to the new company upon the merger.
For example the AOL company spent 186.2 billion on Time Warner when they merged in 2002 which made it the biggest merger ever. This was an unsuccessful merger as AOL based its model on dial up modems but consumers were switching to broadband. So subscribers ended leaving AOL and within 2 years AOL had about $99 billion wiped off its value. In 2009 the companies were de merged The advantages of merging with a company is you get shared power over the market, and also you make profits from both companies so your money increases.
In the corporate form of ownership, the shareholders are the owners of the firm. The shareholders elect the directors of the corporation, who in turn appoint the firm’s management. This separation of ownership from control in the corporate form of organization is what causes agency problems to exist. Management may act in its own or someone else’s best interests, rather than those of the shareholders. If such events
I do realize that the merger of two or more companies does not come in a nice clean package. However, Grobman does a nice job reviewing how to begin a merger and the steps necessary for a merger. He reviews that each participating board should adopt a resolution in favor of the general principle of merging, should appoint a merger committee of board members and staff, use a outside experienced merger consultant, and have meetings scheduled to discuss goals of the merger, whether it is feasible, budgeting, laws, polices, and staff (Grobman, 2015, pg. 395). I think having a careful plan and address these areas Grobman discusses can lead to a successful merger.
A merger is basically a deal that unites two existing companies into one company. This is usually done to expand a company’s reach, expansion into new segments or simply to gain market share. There are different types of mergers that exist as a result of the different reasons that companies might have to merge. The 5 main types include:
Many mergers tend to fail and many others succeed. A merger is the combining of assets and operations, usually between two similar sized companies, in an agreement to join together. Mergers can cause bankruptcy, job losses, less choices, and even a breakup. On the other hand, they have many advantages such as, increased market share, lower cost of production, and higher competitiveness. Most mergers can be highly risky but with the presence of knowledge and intuition they can be successful. One of the most successful mergers is the merger of Disney and Pixar.
The nature of change being witnessed in the contemporary business environment has made mergers and acquisitions a common feature. In the context of mergers, some two or more companies engage in negotiations and start to operate as a single entity. On the other hand, in acquisitions, one large firm acquires a smaller company. While on paper, these two components, both mergers, and acquisitions, may appear straightforward; the gist of the issue is that there is significant complexity associated with both measures.
Mergers & Acquisitions refers to corporate reorganisations that transfer an organisation’s ownership from one firm, the target, to the other known as the acquirer (Motis, 2007). The difference between a merger and an acquisition is that the former is a combination of two companies, whereas acquisition is when one company completely takeover another (Gupta, 2013.
In merger: The combining of two or more companies, generally by offering the stockholders of one company securities in the acquiring company in exchange for the surrender of their stocks. Two companies become one, decison is mutual. They are not idependent anymore
Nevertheless if companies operate in weak markets and fail to create growth and profit the concept of maximization of shareholder wealth is also an opportunity for self-regulation and security against threats for a company. This approach is in particular useful for safeguarding against difficulties arising from wrong or misguided leadership within a corporation. Shareholders of a company have the strongest interest in a company’s success because they often invest a lot of capital in the business and require revenues for their deposit (Moore, 2002). As a matter of fact, they become more