Relation with Share

  • all (or at least majority of) shares are sold to acquirer
    • throw enough money at it and it’s mine
    • hostile takeover possible here
  • funds are given to previous shareholder e.g. a holding company
  • control is now within another entity’s hands
  • can also be done off the public capital market

Liability

  • liabilities are not transferred, because the target company is still a separate entity, Limited Liability still comes into effect
  • if the target company becomes insolvent or is not profitable due to high liabilities the acquirer can still get into trouble because his investment is gone or negative
  • additional loans which were used to finance the deal will not be able to be honored resulting in a difficult situation if not insolvency for acquirer
  • Debt Push-Down is an issue

Takeover

if more than 30% of shares are bought then the rest of the shares from other shareholders need to be bought as well. Minimum price is the maximum price of the last 12 months.