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Kinds of Takeover Terms modified by Takeover Selected AbstractsINDUSTRY PROSPECTS AND ACQUIRER RETURNS IN DIVERSIFYING TAKEOVERSTHE JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2009Husayn Shahrur Abstract We use a sample of 816 diversifying takeovers from 1978 to 2003 to examine whether takeover announcements release negative information about the future prospects of the acquirer's main industry. We find that rivals that are most similar to the acquirer (homogeneous rivals) experience significant negative cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) around takeover announcements. Takeovers that result in negative wealth effects to acquirers are associated with negative abnormal revisions in analysts' forecasts of homogeneous rivals' earnings per share. We also find a decline in the posttakeover operating performance of rival firms. The decline is especially pronounced for homogeneous rivals and for takeovers with negative wealth effects to acquirers. Our findings imply that CAR-based estimates of acquirer wealth gains from takeovers that do not account for industrywide information releases are significantly biased downward. [source] Some Theoretical and Practical Implications of the Attempted Takeover of a Consumer Cooperative SocietyANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2000J. Birchall The article begins with some observations about the trend towards demutualization of mutual and co-operative businesses, and then presents a case study of one, rather dramatic, example: the attempted takeover of Europe's largest consumer co-operative, CWS. It draws on original research into the takeover bid to provide a summary of what happened and when, and then asks some important questions about whether consumer co-operatives are inherently less efficient than PLCs in the retail sector; whether they can make themselves safe from takeover; if they do survive, how they can justify their existence as member-owned businesses; and whether there are alternative forms such as worker or multi-stakeholder ownership that can achieve the broad aims of the co-operative sector more effectively. It concludes that if CWS and similar organizations are to survive they must integrate the two aspects of a co-operative,the business and the association,and take seriously the opportunities and responsibilities that being a member-owned organization implies. [source] The Role of Debt Purchases in Takeovers: A Tale of Two RetailersJOURNAL OF ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT STRATEGY, Issue 3 2006Thomas H. Noe In this paper, we examine acquisitions of two financially distressed retailers,Federated's takeover of Macy's, and Zell Chilmark's takeover of Carter Hawley Hale. In both cases the raider purchased some of the target's outstanding debt to launch its takeover attempt. These debt purchases appear to have been facilitated by two salient factors,the raider's expertise in dealing with distressed firm restructuring and the ability of the raider to acquire a large blockholding of debt. Our analysis indicates that, when these factors are present, it is optimal for a raider to initiate a takeover of a distressed firm through purchasing a block of the firm's debt. Target bondholder reaction will be favorable whereas shareholder reaction may be either favorable or unfavorable. [source] INDUSTRY PROSPECTS AND ACQUIRER RETURNS IN DIVERSIFYING TAKEOVERSTHE JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2009Husayn Shahrur Abstract We use a sample of 816 diversifying takeovers from 1978 to 2003 to examine whether takeover announcements release negative information about the future prospects of the acquirer's main industry. We find that rivals that are most similar to the acquirer (homogeneous rivals) experience significant negative cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) around takeover announcements. Takeovers that result in negative wealth effects to acquirers are associated with negative abnormal revisions in analysts' forecasts of homogeneous rivals' earnings per share. We also find a decline in the posttakeover operating performance of rival firms. The decline is especially pronounced for homogeneous rivals and for takeovers with negative wealth effects to acquirers. Our findings imply that CAR-based estimates of acquirer wealth gains from takeovers that do not account for industrywide information releases are significantly biased downward. [source] Independent Expert Valuations in Takeovers: Are They Biased?AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 39 2006MARTIN BUGEJA The predictability of the opinions provided in expert reports produced in Australian takeovers has led repeatedly to public criticism. This study assesses the validity of this criticism by comparing expert valuations with the recommendations of target firm directors. The results indicate that expert valuations typically agree with directors' recommendations, with the rate of agreement being 95% for reject recommendations. Consistent with expert valuations provided in rejected takeovers being inflated, these bids are associated with similar premiums to accepted bids. Additionally, rejected offers that succeed do so at well below the expert,s valuation, and prices in unsuccessful rejected offers do not increase towards the expert,s valuation. [source] Contesting "Corporate Value" Through Takeover Bids in JapanCORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2007D. Hugh Whittaker Livedoor's attempted takeover of Nippon Broadcasting System in February 2005 marked a watershed in the history of mergers and acquisitions in Japan. The drama was played out in public, changing popular perceptions, influencing policy makers and sending managers scurrying to debate and erect legitimate defence measures in case they themselves should be targeted. Tensions on the investor relations interface were not subsequently reversed by Livedoor's equally dramatic demise. The article considers the rise of takeover bids in Japan, responses to it, and their significance for corporate control and governance, as well as for the "community firm". [source] Benefits of communal breeding in burying beetles: a field experimentECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 3 2000Anne-Katrin Eggert Summary 1. The ultimate causes of communal breeding and joint parental care in various species of Nicrophorus burying beetles have not been resolved satisfactorily. One hypothesis suggests that females remain on the carcass for extended periods of time because joint defence affords them improved probabilities of retaining the carcass successfully in the face of intense competition from intra-generic competitors. 2. In a field experiment designed to test this hypothesis in N. defodiens (Mannerheim), breeding associations of two females and a male were no more successful at retaining their carcass than were monogamous pairs, lending no support to the hypothesis. 3. Intra-generic intruders that usurped already-buried carcasses were typically much larger than the original residents. 4. The body size of original residents affected both the burial depth and the probability of a takeover. Larger beetles buried the carcass deeper and were more likely to retain possession of the carcass. Group composition also did not affect the depth at which carcasses were buried. 5. Severe and even fatal injuries incurred by some residents indicated the occurrence of violent and damaging fights between competitors over carcasses in the field. [source] Invasiveness in plant communities with feedbacksECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 4 2007Margaret J. Eppstein Abstract The detrimental effects of invasive plant species on ecosystems are well documented. While much research has focused on discovering ecological influences associated with invasiveness, it remains unclear how these influences interact, causing some introduced exotic species to become invasive threats. Here we develop a framework that incorporates the influences of propagule pressure, frequency independent growth rates, feedback relationships, resource competition and spatial scale of interactions. Our results show that these ecological influences interact in complex ways, resulting in expected outcomes ranging from inability to establish, to naturalization, to conditional invasion dependent on quantity and spatial distribution of propagules, to unconditional takeover. We propose a way to predict the likelihood of these four possible outcomes, for a species recently introduced into a given target community. Such information could enable conservation biologists to craft strategies and target remediation efforts more efficiently and effectively in order to help maintain biodiversity in ecological communities. [source] Informed Trading around Merger Announcements: An Empirical Test Using Transaction Volume and Open Interest in Options MarketFINANCIAL REVIEW, Issue 2 2001Narayanan Jayaraman G14/G34 Abstract This paper provides empirical evidence on the level of trading activity in the stock options market prior to the announcement of a merger or an acquisition. Our analysis shows that there is a significant increase in the trading activity of call and put options for companies involved in a takeover prior to the rumor of an acquisition or merger. This result is robust to both the volume of option contracts traded and the open interest. The increased trading suggests that there is a significant level of informed trading in the options market prior to the announcement of a corporate event. In addition, abnormal trading activity in the options market appears to lead abnormal trading volume in the equity market. This finding supports the hypothesis that the options market plays an important role in price discovery. [source] The Changing Fortunes of Early Medieval Bavaria to 907 adHISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 4 2010Jonathan Couser This essay surveys the political historiography of the early medieval principality of Bavaria, particularly in three periods; that of the Bavarians' emergence in the sixth century, the time of a complex interrelationship between Bavarians and Franks and their Agilolfing and Carolingian ruling houses in the eighth century, and the transitions of power from Charlemagne's takeover of Bavaria in 788 and the transfer to a new Luitpolding duchy in 907. The Bavarian case serves as a useful counternarrative to those of larger peoples like the Franks or Lombards, and illustrates that the inheritance of Roman tradition, the relationship between rulers and ruled, and the creation and maintenance of ethnic identities could be flexible and complex in the early Middle Ages. [source] Strategy and management control systems: A study of the design and use of management control systems following takeoverACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 1 2002Fredrik Nilsson This paper describes and analyses the approach taken by four well-known Swedish companies to management control following takeover. The findings suggest two factors which can explain how the management control systems were designed and used after an acquisition: the corporate strategy of the acquirer and the business strategy of the acquired company. The case studies show how these forces could impose mutually inconsistent requirements on the management control system of the acquired firm, and also how these inconsistencies were resolved. [source] RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN GERMAN CAPITAL MARKETS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCEJOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 3 2001Eric Nowak Financial economists continue to point to Germany as a relatively successful model of a "bank-centered," as opposed to a market-based, economy. But few seem to recognize that, in the years leading up to World War I, German equity capital markets were among the most highly developed in the world. Although there are now only about 750 companies listed on German stock exchanges, in 1914 there were almost 1,200 (as compared to only about 600 stocks then listed on the New York Stock Exchange). Since German reunification in 1990, there have been signs of a possible restoration of the country's equity markets to something like their former prominence. The last 10 years have seen important legal and institutional developments that can be seen as preparing the way for larger and more active German equity markets, together with a more "shareholder-friendly" corporate governance system. In particular, the 1994 Securities Act, the Corporation Control and Transparency Act passed in 1998, and the just released Takeover Act and Fourth Financial Market Promotion Act all contain legal reforms that are essential conditions for well functioning equity markets. Such legal and regulatory changes have helped lay the groundwork for more visible and dramatic milestones, such as the Deutsche Telekom IPO in 1996, the opening of the Neuer Market in 1997, and, perhaps most important, the acquisition in 2000 of Mannesmann by Vodafone, the first successful hostile takeover of a German company. [source] The Role of Debt Purchases in Takeovers: A Tale of Two RetailersJOURNAL OF ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT STRATEGY, Issue 3 2006Thomas H. Noe In this paper, we examine acquisitions of two financially distressed retailers,Federated's takeover of Macy's, and Zell Chilmark's takeover of Carter Hawley Hale. In both cases the raider purchased some of the target's outstanding debt to launch its takeover attempt. These debt purchases appear to have been facilitated by two salient factors,the raider's expertise in dealing with distressed firm restructuring and the ability of the raider to acquire a large blockholding of debt. Our analysis indicates that, when these factors are present, it is optimal for a raider to initiate a takeover of a distressed firm through purchasing a block of the firm's debt. Target bondholder reaction will be favorable whereas shareholder reaction may be either favorable or unfavorable. [source] Battle in the Boardroom: A Discursive PerspectiveJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 1 2002Wilson Ng This article examines the centrality of discourse in achieving managerially relevant outcomes, with a focus on the in-situ performance context of corporate storytellers. The Ric,urian concept of speech act, capturing both the intentionality of organizational discourse and the social context of its production and reception, implicitly guided our research effort. The article has at its core a story of how senior organizational officers exploited the volatile circumstances of a public takeover in Singapore. By looking at the social construction of narratives in their many fragments we come to see how a key protagonist carves out a powerful position. The efficacy of his performances can be seen to be dependent upon the effective use of poetic tropes and the receptiveness of listeners to particular Chinese archetypal relationship-driven themes. In crafting our story we use multiple texts which were produced in and around two case organizations. As such we offer a carefully constructed collage, a mixture of production and reproduction, sticking closely to forms of communication that key organizational actors used to plan, enact and interpret their actions and those of others. Whilst our story offers insights to readers with an interest in organizational discourse, corporate governance and Asian management practices, we refrain from imposing an authoritarian interpretation that insists on identifying with the intentions of the authors. [source] A genetic assessment of parentage in a natural population of dollar sunfish (Lepomis marginatus) based on microsatellite markersMOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 9 2002M. MacKiewicz Abstract We employ microsatellite markers to assess mating tactics in Lepomis marginatus. Genetic assignments for 1015 progeny in 23 nests indicate that about 95% of the offspring were sired by their respective nest-guardians, a finding consistent with the apparent absence of a brood parasitic morphotype in this species. Allopaternal care was documented in two nests, one resulting from a nest takeover, the other from cuckoldry by an adjoining nest-tender. Clustered de novo mutations also were identified. About 2.5 females (range 1,7) contributed to the offspring pool within a typical nest. Results are compared to those for other Lepomis species. [source] Chinese bid for Unocal sparks fears of global clash over energy resourcesOIL AND ENERGY TRENDS, Issue 7 2005Article first published online: 15 JUL 200 A bid by China's state-owned offshore oil company for a privately-owned US upstream corporation has raised fears of a Chinese takeover of several other foreign companies as Peking tries to secure oil and gas reserves to fuel the country's booming economy. The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has offered $19.6 bn for the California-based company, Unocal, the eighth-largest upstream company in the US in terms of reserves. The bid trumps an earlier one of $18.4 bn by US major Chevron, which had been accepted by Unocal's board and appeared to have the backing of many leading political figures in the US. [source] The Renegade in German Exile LiteratureORBIS LITERARUM, Issue 1 2001Malcolm Humble The article outlines the process by which several exile writers came to terms with the realisation that the response of the writing community to the Nazi takeover was by no means unanimous. It focuses in particular on the reactions of exiles in criticism, prose fiction and poetry to what was perceived as renegade behaviour by Gottfried Benn and Gerhart Hauptmann, before briefly considering the less well known but equally symptomatic cases of Max Barthel, Ernst Glaeser and Josef Ponten. It then looks at Paul Zech's attempt in his novel Deutschland, dein Tänzer ist der Tod (published 1980, but written during the thirties) to place Ponten and others in the context of a broader view of the literary landscape which included those who remained in Germany and made differing accommodations to the new regime, as well as those emigrants whose work had not (yet) been devoted to the anti-Fascist cause. [source] Even adult sex ratios in lemurs: Potential costs and benefits of subordinate males in Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) in the Kirindy Forest CFPF, MadagascarAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Peter M. Kappeler Abstract Optimal group size and composition are determined by both the costs and benefits of group living for the group's members. Verreaux's sifakas (Propithecus verreauxi), a diurnal lemur, form multimale multifemale groups with the tendency toward even adult sex ratios despite a small average number of females per group. The unexpected presence of multiple adult males may be explained by tolerance of other group members if subordinate males provide benefits to the group that outweigh the costs associated with their presence. Results based on both demographic data collected over a 13-year period and behavioral observations suggest that subordinate males provide no benefits in terms of infant survival and defense against group takeover by outside males. Although groups with more males are more likely to win intergroup encounters, subordinate males do not participate in these encounters more often than expected. Subordinate males are not costly to other group members in terms of direct intragroup feeding competition, but aggression rates between dominant and immigrated subordinate males increase in the mating season. Even though subordinate males provide very few benefits to the group, they are not very costly either and thus may be tolerated by resident females and dominant males. This tolerance may help to partially explain the tendency towards their unusual adult sex ratio. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Partisanship, Political Control, and Economic AssessmentsAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2010Alan S. Gerber Previous research shows that partisans rate the economy more favorably when their party holds power. There are several explanations for this association, including use of different evaluative criteria, selective perception, selective exposure to information, correlations between economic experiences and partisanship, and partisan bias in survey responses. We use a panel survey around the November 2006 election to measure changes in economic expectations and behavioral intentions after an unanticipated shift in political power. Using this design, we can observe whether the association between partisanship and economic assessments holds when some leading mechanisms thought to bring it about are excluded. We find that there are large and statistically significant partisan differences in how economic assessments and behavioral intentions are revised immediately following the Democratic takeover of Congress. We conclude that this pattern of partisan response suggests partisan differences in perceptions of the economic competence of the parties, rather than alternative mechanisms. [source] Vigilance in ursine black and white colobus monkeys (Colobus vellerosus): an examination of the effects of conspecific threat and predationAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 11 2009Andrew J.J. MacIntosh Abstract Vigilance is thought to have evolved as an antipredator defense but, in primates, conspecific threat often better explains this behavior. We examined vigilance in one group of Colobus vellerosus inhabiting the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary in Ghana. We aimed to (1) describe factors affecting vigilance in this population, and (2) examine the importance of predation avoidance and conspecific threat in explaining vigilance patterns. Because of a male takeover preceding the study, our focal group (B2) consisted of six adult males and three adult females. We collected 490 10-min focal samples (82,hr) from all adults in the group (N=9) from July to November, 2001. To avoid predators, individuals should be more vigilant (i) with fewer neighbors, and (ii) in areas of the canopy with higher predation risks. Conspecific threats can be divided into extra- and intra-group threats. Extra-group threats should lead to higher vigilance levels (iii) during intergroup encounters, and (iv) in areas where the home range overlaps with other groups of colobus. Intra-group threats should lead to greater vigilance (v) in the presence of neighbors and (vi) while feeding or occupying food patches (if resources are limiting). Our results best support the hypothesis that vigilance functions primarily to detect extra-group, conspecific threats. Individuals were most vigilant during intergroup encounters and in areas of range overlap, and monthly vigilance rates were associated with monthly encounter rates. Individuals tended to scan less in proximity to familiar vs. unfamiliar group mates, suggesting that relationship quality may affect colobus vigilance. Finally, predation pressures or anthropogenic disturbances might have influenced vigilance, as individuals were more vigilant low in the canopy. However, this last result could also be due to the lower visibility because of dense foliage or to the fact that the monkeys have access to fewer escape routes when ranging lower in the canopy. Am. J. Primatol. 71:919,927, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] CLUSTERED SYNERGIES IN THE TAKEOVER MARKETTHE JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2008Jeff Madura Abstract In a competitive market for takeover bids, the takeover premium serves as an effective proxy for the expected synergy. We find that the expected synergy is primarily related to the premiums paid in other recent takeovers in the same industry. This relation is even stronger when considering previous takeovers (especially over the previous three-month horizon) in the same industry that have the same payment method (cash versus stock) or form of takeover (tender offer versus merger). More of the variation in expected synergies among takeovers can be explained by the premiums derived from recent takeovers in the same industry than by all bidder- and target-specific characteristics combined. We also find that the bidder valuation effects are inversely related to the premium paid for targets, implying that abnormally high premiums may reflect overpayment rather than abnormally high synergies. [source] Some Theoretical and Practical Implications of the Attempted Takeover of a Consumer Cooperative SocietyANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2000J. Birchall The article begins with some observations about the trend towards demutualization of mutual and co-operative businesses, and then presents a case study of one, rather dramatic, example: the attempted takeover of Europe's largest consumer co-operative, CWS. It draws on original research into the takeover bid to provide a summary of what happened and when, and then asks some important questions about whether consumer co-operatives are inherently less efficient than PLCs in the retail sector; whether they can make themselves safe from takeover; if they do survive, how they can justify their existence as member-owned businesses; and whether there are alternative forms such as worker or multi-stakeholder ownership that can achieve the broad aims of the co-operative sector more effectively. It concludes that if CWS and similar organizations are to survive they must integrate the two aspects of a co-operative,the business and the association,and take seriously the opportunities and responsibilities that being a member-owned organization implies. [source] The Living and the Lost: War and Possession in VietnamANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS, Issue 2 2007Mai Lan Gustafsson The war in Vietnam claimed the lives of five million of its citizens, many of whom died in ways thought to have turned them into malevolent spirits who prey on the living. These angry ghosts are held responsible for a host of physical ailments and other misfortunes suffered by survivors of the war and their descendants. Known in the anthropological literature as possession illness, the cross-cultural treatment for such maladies is typically provided by practitioners like mediums and exorcists, who cure victims by interacting with noncorporeal entities. In Vietnam, such spirit healers were banned after the communist takeover of the North in 1945. This has posed a problem for the large numbers of Vietnamese who suffer from ghost-induced sickness. This paper focuses on three victims of angry ghosts, presenting the common origin, context, and resolution of their suffering. In doing so, it provides an overview of Vietnamese beliefs about death and the after-life, the ideal relationship between the living and the dead, and the connection between state politics and spirit practice. [source] The Effect of Board Independence on Target Shareholder WealthAUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 2 2008Peter M. Clarkson We seek insights into whether, and if so how, an independent board enhances the bid premiums offered to target firm shareholders during a takeover. The results indicate that the presence of an independent board enhances the initial bid premium by, on average, 21.1%. However, the results of more refined analysis suggest that the enhanced bid premium is in fact driven by independent boards comprising non-executive directors who have reputation capital at stake. We also find that independent boards that resist takeovers or include voluntary independent expert reports in target statements, increase the bid premium revision by, on average, 15.6% and 16.2%, respectively. [source] "Cold Storage": British Policy and the Beginnings of the Irian Barat/West New Guinea DisputeAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 2 2000Nicholas Tarling During the struggle for independence, the British had sought to bring the Dutch and the Indonesians together: they wanted the friendship of the Dutch, their neighbours in Europe, but also believed that the Western powers could stay in Southeast Asia only if they came to terms with nationalism. The 1949 agreement that transferred sovereignty postponed the question of Irian Barat/West New Guinea. The British rather hoped that the Dutch would stay but,particularly as the Cold War intensified, did not wish to alienate the Indonesians. If no agreement could be reached on the issue, they wanted to put it into "cold storage" for a number of years. The Australian government was not satisfied with these policies. It opposed an Indonesian takeover, or indeed any Indonesian role in West New Guinea. Its aim was thepreservation of the status quo: even "cold storage" was insufficient. [source] Peptide-dominated membranes preceding the genetic takeover by RNA: latest thinking on a classic controversyBIOESSAYS, Issue 10 2009Richard Egel Abstract It is commonly presumed that abiotic membranes were colonized by proteins later on. Yet, hydrophobic peptides could have formed primordial protein-dominated membranes on their own. In a metabolism-first context, "autocatalytically closed" sets of statistical peptides could organize a self-maintaining protometabolism, assisted by an unfolding set of ribotide-related cofactors. Pairwise complementary ribotide cofactors may have formed docking guides for stochastic peptide formation, before replicating RNA emerged from this subset. Tidally recurring wet-drying cycles and an early onset of photosynthetic activities are considered most likely to meet the thermodynamic requirements. Conceivably, the earliest peptide-dominated vesicles were engaged in light harvesting, together with isoprenoid-tethered pigments, rather than providing an external boundary. Early on, the bulk of prebiotic organic matter can have formed a contiguous layer covering the mineral sediment, held in place by colloidal coherence of a hydrogel matrix. This unconventional scenario assumes a late onset of cellular individualization , perhaps from within, resembling endosporogenesis. [source] One or Several Betrayals? or, When is Betrayal Treason?BULLETIN OF LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH, Issue 4 2003Genet, the Argentine Liberal Project Betrayal is one of the key narrative tropes in the fiction of the Argentine writer Roberto Arlt. The psychological and existential implications of the betrayals found in novels such as El juguete rabioso (1926) and El amor brujo (1933) have attracted much critical comment, as have the links between the betrayals found in Arlt's fiction and the work of Jean Genet. Arlt's oeuvre has been read in relation to the turbulent political context of 1920s and 30s Argentina, in particular the failure of the Liberal Project of economic development through immigration that was introduced after the fall of the dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas in 1852, the economic collapse of 1929 and the ensuing military coup of 1930. Critics have suggested that betrayal in Arlt represents an attack on bourgeois hypocrisy, a middle-class attempt at transcending one's environment, or a reversal of dominant social values. This paper however intends to deepen the understanding of betrayal in Arlt's fiction by examining it as a political gesture, a quality overlooked by many studies. A reading of the political nature of betrayal in Genet's work and an engagement with Bersani's queer reading of Funeral Rites alongside Said's analysis of Genet as an anti-identarian revolutionary, allows the reader of Arlt to reassess the political gesture contained in betrayal, and to move towards a reading of the development in Arlt's fiction either side of the military takeover of 1930, moving from his critique of the rising petit-bourgeois classes in El juguete rabioso (1926) to a clear realisation and encouragement of class consciousness in the short stories of El criador de gorilas (1936). [source] Commerce with a conscience: corporate control and academic investmentBUSINESS ETHICS: A EUROPEAN REVIEW, Issue 4 2001Diane Huberman-Arnold Corporations have been investing in academia to an extent that could be classified as a corporate takeover of universities. Intra-university critics see this as an ethical problem, because of the degree of business control over university policies and decisions which accompanies the funding. University critics rarely suggest that the corporate funding be given up, returned, or even limited. What they protest against is corporate control, which they see as threatening university autonomy, and as inimical to the public good. Multi-university conferences have been held focusing on this problem, and the most serious solution proposed thus far is to construct a relevant code of ethics regulating and limiting corporate involvement, through standards and guidelines which corporations will then have to subscribe to, in order to fund universities. However, there is a conflict of interest here. Universities have a public trust and a fiduciary duty not to compromise education. This implies a covenant not to cede power to outside interests, not to use university resources, or faculty and students, as a means to an educationally irrelevant end. Universities cannot sell out. However, it seems equally dishonest not to offer their students a well-funded first-rate, quality education in applied fields with current skills, maximum research opportunity, and the corporate ties that would allow them to obtain jobs. We examine three cases showing errors made by universities in ceding control to corporate investment, and draw some policy conclusions. [source] What Do Shareholders' Coalitions Really Want?CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2007Evidence from Italian voting trusts This paper studies the effects of having multiple large shareholders who share the control of firms, by analysing a unique dataset of Italian shareholders' agreements (voting trusts). We investigate the separation between ownership and control granted by such agreements, showing that, on average, a voting trust owning 52 per cent of the total company's cash-flow rights is able to exercise up to 87 per cent of the total board rights; the wedge is particularly beneficial to the largest shareholder within the voting trust who is able to get the majority of board rights despite owning only a minority fraction of the company's cash-flow rights. Then, an event-study analysis of a sample of voting trusts' announcements is performed. The results support the "entrenchment effects" hypothesis (Stulz, 1988) linking the ownership structure and the firm value, and are consistent with the view that, in Italy, voting trust agreements are mainly aimed at both protecting controlling shareholders from hostile takeovers and entrenching incumbent management. [source] Shareholder Wealth Effects of European Domestic and Cross-border Takeover BidsEUROPEAN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2004Marc Goergen G32; G34 Abstract This paper analyses the short-term wealth effects of large intra-European takeover bids. We find announcement effects of 9% for the target firms compared to a statistically significant announcement effect of only 0.7% for the bidders. The type of takeover bid has a large impact on the short-term wealth effects with hostile takeovers triggering substantially larger price reactions than friendly operations. When a UK firm is involved, the abnormal returns are higher than those of bids involving both a Continental European target and bidder. There is strong evidence that the means of payment in an offer has an impact on the share price. A high market-to-book ratio of the target leads to a higher bid premium, but triggers a negative price reaction for the bidding firm. We also investigate whether the predominant reason for takeovers is synergies, agency problems or managerial hubris. Our results suggest that synergies are the prime motivation for bids and that targets and bidders share the wealth gains. [source] |