pete for international capital. As capital has begun to flow around the world, other transactions have followed. For example, the takeover, in which control of equity passes from one group to another, has made its appearance in the United Kingdom and, to a lesser extent, on the European continent, after enjoying a long ride in the United States during the 1980s. Often associated with Michael Milken and the junk bond scandal (Evans, 1996, p. 38), mergers and acquisitions have continued to be a way of life for American companies in the 1990s as they have sought to gain economies of scale and gain entrance to new markets.
Despite their prominence in the United States, hostile takeovers (and even friendly acquisitions) are not common ways of doing business in Europe. However, the European Union (EU) sought recently to change that situation by adding a Thirteenth Directive which had as its stated goal the creation of an environment which would be friendly to takeovers. Because American investors are likely to be interested in European capital m
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