The market for corporate control had been the playfield of bust-up artists and speculators seeking short-time profits during the 1980s. This had also encouraged many innovations in the art of hostile takeover defence. Until today anti-takeover defence has reached a very sophisticated level and most companies have erected formidable defences to counter aggressive corporate raiders. With her book Jeanette Gorzala provides a global perspective on hostile take-over defence during the latest merger wave. The focus lies on firstly determining the most common anti-takeover defence strategies and then in a second step evaluating their effectiveness to ward off corporate raiders. For this purpose the underlying concepts of the formal theory are presented in order to serve as a fundamental basis for an empirical study. In order to underline the theory with empirical evidence a sample of 335 hostile takeover bids launched in the timeframe from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2008 has been analyzed. The key findings of the study are presented along two vital research questions reflecting the purpose of this book.

• merger

• corporate raiders

• corporate control