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.
