StrikeAndYield crib sheet · information and education only

Mergers & Acquisitions

Companies changing hands — bought, sold, merged, split apart. The deal everybody has heard of, and the one with the most ways to fail.

The desk — 15 transaction types

Activist campaign	A small stake and a public argument. Nothing is bought — the register decides.
Hostile takeover	An offer made to shareholders over the board's objection, argued entirely from public filings.
Joint venture	Two companies build something together instead of one buying the other. The document that matters says how it ends.
Merger of equals	Two comparable companies combining without one buying the other. The ratio can be split; the chief executive cannot.
Recommended offer	A listed company bought with its own board's blessing — then a year of waiting for people outside the room.
Sell-side auction	The seller runs a race between buyers. Most of the price is made here, not in the model.

Asset purchase	Buying the business instead of the company: only what is on the list transfers, and every consent is somebody else's veto.
Carve-out	Selling part of a group that was never a company. Most of the work is manufacturing something sellable.
Minority stake	Buying part of a company without buying control — and paying less per share for exactly that reason.
Private share purchase	Buying a private company by buying its shares — and inheriting everything it has ever done.
Spin-off	A group divides itself and hands shareholders both halves. Nobody buys anything and no money moves.
Squeeze-out	Past a statutory threshold, a buyer may take the last shares whether or not those owners agree.
Take-private	A listed company bought by a financial buyer and removed from the market — with the debt committed before a word is said.
Tender offer	A price published to every shareholder at once. Whoever hands over their shares is bought; whoever does not, is not.

A takeover run through a court: it delivers the whole company or nothing, and the classes decide who has a veto.

The buyer's own share price — A highly rated acquirer can pay in paper and still look accretive
The cost and availability of debt — Cheaper debt raises what a financial buyer can bid without raising what the business is worth
Boards that have run out of organic growth — Pushes towards acquisition, and towards paying too much for it
Antitrust and foreign-investment review — Lengthens the timetable and prices the risk of never completing
A shareholder register that has changed hands — Arbitrage funds vote for completion; long-only holders may not
The seller's alternative — A credible plan to stay independent is the strongest price lever there is

Announcement morning, before the market opens	The offer, the recommendation and the irrevocable undertakings are published together
The weeks after a possible-offer announcement	In several jurisdictions a named bidder must put up or shut up
The shareholder vote, or the acceptance deadline	The threshold is statutory and it is not always a simple majority
Regulatory clearance, months after signing	The long stop date is the real deadline in the agreement
Completion accounts, weeks after closing	The price agreed is not the price paid

Counted from the same table each transaction page prints. Not a rating and not a ranking: there is deliberately no total.