What's Wrong with Conglomerate Mergers?
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COMMENTARY to PROFESSOR MURRAY Phil Reed*
COMMENTARY TO PROFESSOR MURRAY Phil Reed* In his article, Professor Murray provides an excellent response to the Business Roundtable’s (BRT) Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation, and outlines the ways that an interested corporation could implement governance changes to reflect the statement. Reactions to the Business Roundtable’s statement, as described by Professor Murray, could be grouped into one of three categories – optimistic praise, supportive pessimism, and blunt opposition. As Professor Murray has done an excellent job of addressing the second category of reactions, supportive pessimism, it falls upon me to address the blunt opposition. I think, however, that there are two modes of opposition to the BRT’s statement. The first mode of opposition is that the signatories of the statement are being insincere in endorsing a commitment to stakeholders, rather than shareholders. The second is opposition to stakeholder theory in the first place. In that view, the BRT should not have issued the statement at all. The sincerity of a signed statement can be readily determined by the behavior of one who signed it. Soon after signing the Business Roundtable’s statement, Amazon-owned Whole Foods made the decision to cut health benefits for part-time workers.1 This move did not do much to inspire confidence in the statement, to put it lightly.2 To the extent that * Phil Reed is a third-year law student at the University of Tennessee College of Law and is scheduled to graduate in May 2020. 1 Bob Bryan, Amazon-Owned Whole Foods’ Decision to Drop Health Benefits for Hundreds of Part-Time Workers Reveals How Promises to Workers Like CEO Jeff Bezos’ Recent Pledge are Worthless, BUS. -
An Analysis of Accounting and Tax Considerations Which Affect Conglomerate Growth
Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review Volume 3 Number 2 Symposium: The Conglomerate Article 11 Corporation 4-1-1970 An Analysis of Accounting and Tax Considerations Which Affect Conglomerate Growth Joanne S. Rocks Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/llr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Joanne S. Rocks, An Analysis of Accounting and Tax Considerations Which Affect Conglomerate Growth, 3 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 348 (1970). Available at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/llr/vol3/iss2/11 This Symposium is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews at Digital Commons @ Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AN ANALYSIS OF ACCOUNTING AND TAX CONSIDERATIONS WHICH AFFECT CONGLOMERATE GROWTH When one thinks of private enterprise, the concept of maximum profits arises automatically. Originally this concept was practiced in an internal sense only, that is, by widening the gap between total costs and total reve- nues. Economies of size, volume purchases, and new technology were all considered beneficial to the healthy growth of any business. In the 1800's, with the increase of publicly held corporations, a new way to expand earnings arose. This new pattern of growth exhibited the external generation of profits via the acquisition of profitable going concerns. Many, if not all, of these early acquisitions were motivated by reasons not directly connected with the acquisition of profits because the acquirers' primary concern was with the accumulation of assets. -
Corporate Governance of Company Groups: International and Latin American Experience
Corporate Governance of Company Groups: International and Latin American Experience Preliminary version for comment. Hosted by : Please send written comments to [email protected] by 5 December, 2014 Latin American Roundtable Task Force on Corporate Governance of Company Groups 17 November, 2014 Hotel Hilton Bogotá, CARRERA 7 NO. 72-41, BOGOTA, 00000, COLOMBIA http://www.oecd.org/daf/ca/latinamericanroundtableoncorporategovernance.htm With funding support of: TABLE OF CONTENTS International and Latin American Overview ............................................................................. 3 1. Introduction............................................................................................................................ 3 2. Economic Rationale for Corporate Groups and the Role of Corporate Governance ............. 4 3. International Work on Corporate Governance of Groups ...................................................... 8 4. Economic Relevance of Company Groups in LatAm .......................................................... 12 5. What is an Economic Group in LatAm? .............................................................................. 12 6. Structure of the Regulatory and Supervisory Framework ................................................... 13 7. Protection of Minority Shareholder Rights .......................................................................... 14 8. Economic Groups and Conflicts of Interest ......................................................................... 15 9. Multinational -
Citigroup Inc.; Rule 14A-8 No-Action Letter
*** FISMA & OMB Memorandum M-07-16 ENCLOSURE 1 THE PROPOSAL AND RELATED CORRESPONDENCE (IF ANY) ENCLOSURE 2 STATEMENT OF INTENT TO EXCLUDE STOCKHOLDER PROPOSAL The Proposal requests that the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) conduct a comprehensive review of Citigroup’s governance documents, making recommendations to the shareholders on specifically how the “Purpose of a Corporation” signed by our Chief Executive Officer can be fully implemented by board and management, and recommending amendments to governance documents such as the bylaws, Company’s Articles of Incorporation, or Committee Charters to fulfill the new statement of purpose. The Proponent does not reproduce, or really even try to describe, the “Purpose of a Corporation” that is the subject of his Proposal. The Company believes the Proponent is referring to the Statement of the Purpose of a Corporation issued by the Business Roundtable (the “Statement”), which was signed by the chief executive officers of 181 companies, including the Company’s Chief Executive Officer (the “CEO”). The Statement reduces to writing the signatory companies’ commitment to all of their stakeholders, specifically in five areas: (1) “delivering value to the company’s customers”; (2) “investing in our employees”; (3) “dealing fairly and ethically with our suppliers”; (4) “supporting the communities in which we work”; and (5) “generating long- term value for shareholders, who provide the capital that allows companies to invest, grow and innovate.”1 A copy of the Statement is attached hereto as Enclosure 3. THE PROPOSAL MAY BE EXCLUDED BECAUSE IT IS VAGUE AND MISLEADING. The Proposal may be excluded pursuant to Rule 14a-8(i)(3) because the Proposal is vague and misleading.2 The Proposal is vague because stockholders cannot understand the action requested by the Proposal without referring to materials outside the Proposal. -
Duopolistic Competition of Conglomerate Firms
A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Güth, Werner; Häger, Kirsten; Kirchkamp, Oliver; Schwalbach, Joachim Working Paper Testing forbearance experimentally: Duopolistic competition of conglomerate firms Jena Economic Research Papers, No. 2010,043 Provided in Cooperation with: Max Planck Institute of Economics Suggested Citation: Güth, Werner; Häger, Kirsten; Kirchkamp, Oliver; Schwalbach, Joachim (2010) : Testing forbearance experimentally: Duopolistic competition of conglomerate firms, Jena Economic Research Papers, No. 2010,043, Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/36672 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the -
The Institutions of Corporate Governance
ISSN 1045-6333 HARVARD JOHN M. OLIN CENTER FOR LAW, ECONOMICS, AND BUSINESS THE INSTITUTIONS OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Mark J. Roe Discussion Paper No. 488 08/2004 Harvard Law School Cambridge, MA 02138 This paper can be downloaded without charge from: The Harvard John M. Olin Discussion Paper Series: http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/olin_center/ The Social Science Research Network Electronic Paper Collection: http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract_id=###### This paper is also a discussion paper of the John M. Olin Center's Program on Corporate Governance JEL K4, H73, G34, G28 The Institutions of Corporate Governance Mark J. Roe* Abstract In this review piece, I outline the institutions of corporate governance decision- making in the large public firm in the wealthy West. By corporate governance, I mean the relationships at the top of the firm—the board of directors, the senior managers, and the stockholders. By institutions I mean those repeated mechanisms that allocate authority among the three and that affect, modulate, and control the decisions made at the top of the firm. Core corporate governance institutions respond to two distinct problems, one of vertical governance (between distant shareholders and managers) and another of horizontal governance (between a close, controlling shareholder and distant shareholders). Some institutions deal well with vertical corporate governance but do less well with horizontal governance. The institutions interact as complements and substitutes, and many can be seen as developing out of a “primitive” of contract law. In Part I, I sort out the central problems of corporate governance. In Part II, I catalog the basic institutions of corporate governance, from markets to organization to contract. -
Conglomerate Merger Syndrome--A Comparison: Congressional Policy with Enforcement Policy James Thomas
University of Tulsa College of Law TU Law Digital Commons Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works 1968 Conglomerate Merger Syndrome--A Comparison: Congressional Policy with Enforcement Policy James Thomas Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/fac_pub Part of the Law Commons James Thomas, Conglomerate Merger Syndrome--A Comparison: Congressional Policy with Enforcement Policy, 36 Fordham L. Rev. 461 (1968). Recommended Citation 36 Fordham L. Rev. 461 (1968). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by TU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works by an authorized administrator of TU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CONGLOMERATE MERGER SYNDROME-A COMPARISON: CONGRESSIONAL POLICY WITH EIFORCEMENT POLICY JAMES C. THOMAS* 661T is a sad thought... that the present system of production and of exchange is having that tendency which is sure at some not very dis- tant day to crush out all small men, all small capitalists, all small enter- prises." This statement, descriptive of the present day corporate merger activity, was first rendered by Senator George in 1890 when Congress was considering passage of the Sherman Act." Perhaps an even more de- scriptive statement was made by the late Justice Harlan in the Standard Oii case. 2 Dissenting in this famous Supreme Court decision which cre- ated the so-called "rule of reason," Justice Harlan declared: All who recall the condition of the country in 1890 will remember that there was everywhere, among the people generally, a deep feeling of unrest. -
Businessroundtable.Pdf
Corporations 101 The Role of Corporations and Corporate Governance in Maintaining U.S. Competitiveness July 2008 Business Roundtable (www.businessroundtable.org) is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with over $4.5 trillion in annual revenues and nearly 10 million employees. Member companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock market and represent more than 40 percent of all corporate income taxes paid to the federal government. Collectively, they returned more than $114 billion in dividends to shareholders and the economy in 2006. Roundtable companies give more than $7 billion a year in combined charitable contributions, representing nearly 60 percent of total corporate giving. They are technology innovation leaders, with $90 billion in annual research and development (R&D) spending — nearly half of the total private R&D spending in the U.S. Copyright © 2008 by Business Roundtable Corporations 101 The Role of Corporations and Corporate Governance in Maintaining U.S. Competitiveness A White Paper by Business Roundtable | July 2008 Table of Contents I. Introduction 2 II. The Role of Corporations 3 III. Corporate Governance 4 IV. Corporate Governance Reforms 9 V. Governance Challenges for Maintaining U.S. Competitiveness 11 VI. Conclusion 14 Business Roundtable I. Introduction In an era of increasing global competition and economic uncertainty, understand- ing the role that corporations play is more important than ever. Therefore, Business Roundtable has prepared this paper to provide a brief introduction to corporations, the economic benefits they provide, their governance structure and their record of reforms. Business Roundtable is an association of chief executive officers (CEOs) from more than 160 leading U.S. -
The Valuation of Conglomerate Companies Approved
THE VALUATION OF CONGLOMERATE COMPANIES APPROVED: Graduate Committee: Committee Member Committee Member Committee MemSer Dean of the Softool "of Busine Dean of th£ Graduate School THE VALUATION OF CONGLOMERATE COMPANIES DISSERTATION Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements ^or the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Winfield P. Betty, B. B. A., M. B. A, Denton, Texas May, 1969 Copyright by Winfield P. Betty 1969 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES V LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of the Problem Hypotheses Sources of Data Significance of the Investigation Approach II. SIMPLE RELATIONSHIPS UNDERLYING ACQUISITIONS . 15 Equations for Growth Trends of Earnings per Share Effects of Multiple Acquisitions III. ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND MATERIAL, MOTIVES, AND POSSIBLE EFFICIENCIES UNDERLYING THE GROWTH OF CONGLOMERATE COMPANIES 33 The Attitude of the Supreme Court and Regulatory Agencies toward Conglomerate Companies Possible Efficiencies Released in Mergers Definition of a Conglomerate Merger Possible Motives of Stockholders and Manage- ment Leading to the Growth of Conglomerate Companies IV. THEORIES OF VALUE AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION ... 52 Theories of Value Investment and Speculative Theories of Value Decision Models Decision-Making Situations Generation of the Relevant States of the World Basic Models Used by Fundamentalists Conflicting Theories of Value The Decision Environment Surrounding Conglomerate Companies in XV Page Problems Introduced -
Members Are the Chief Executive Officers of Leading U.S
Business Roundtable CEOs support sound public policy to defeat COVID-19, create American jobs and restore U.S. economic growth and competitiveness. LEARN MORE (https://www.businessroundtable.org/policy-perspectives) Business Roundtable members are the chief executive officers of leading U.S. MEMBERS companies. Collectively, they represent every sector of the economy and bring a unique and important perspective to bear on policy issues that impact the economy. Roundtable members are thought leaders, advocating for policy solutions that foster U.S. economic growth and competitiveness. Search Business Roundtable Members Mike Roman Robert Ford Richard A. Gonzalez 3M Abbott AbbVie Chief Executive Officer President and Chief Executive Chairman of the Board and Chief (/about-us/members/mike- Officer Executive Officer roman-chief-executive- (/about-us/members/robert- (/about- officer-3m) ford-president-and-chief- us/members/richard-a- executive-officer-abbott) gonzalez-chairman-of-the- board-and-chief-executive- officer-abbvie) Julie Sweet Carlos A. Rodriguez Troy Rudd Accenture ADP AECOM Chief Executive Officer President and Chief Executive Chief Executive Officer (/about us/members/julie Officer (/about us/members/troy (/about-us/members/julie- Officer (/about-us/members/troy- sweet-chief-executive- (/about-us/members/carlos- rudd-chief-executive-officer- officer-accenture) a-rodriguez-president-and- aecom) chief-executive-officer-adp) Dan Amos John O. Larsen Aflac Incorporated Alliant Energy Corporation Andrés Gluski Chairman, Chief Executive Officer President, CEO and Chairman of The AES Corporation and President the Board Director, President and CEO (/dan-amos-chairman-chief- (/about-us/members/john-o- (/about- executive-officer-and- larsen-president-ceo-and- us/members/andrés-gluski- president-aflac- chairman-of-the-board- director-president-and-ceo- incorporated) alliant-energy-corporation) the-aes-corporation) Lee J. -
Assessment of Corporate Governance Practice Among Listed Conglomerate Companies in Nigeria
International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VII, Issue IX, September 2020 | ISSN 2321–2705 Assessment of Corporate Governance Practice among Listed Conglomerate Companies in Nigeria Ahmed Ishaku ACA1, Mubarakatu Garba2 & Farida Musa 3 1,2,3 Department of Accounting Gombe State University Abstract: This study examines the level of compliance with 2011 stakeholders'. Most companies’ failures in recent times is SEC code of corporate governance among listed conglomerate attributed to inability to comply with corporate governance companies in Nigeria. Expost-facto research design was used, a principles. Furthermore, capital inflow, development, growth, corporate governance compliance index was employed and data and high corporate performance in financial and operational was extracted from annual report and account of the companies. terms depends on organization's accountability, integrity and It was found that corporate governance initiatives are embedded on the boards of listed conglomerate companies in Nigeria and transparency (Joshua, Joshua & Tauhid, 2013). Hence, the that there is high compliance with SEC code of corporate quality of corporate governance principles in place affects the governance in the listed conglomerate companies in Nigeria. performance of individual organizations and the economy at Modern corporation plays a major role in the economic large. development of any nation, hence the need to ensure good governance of these corporations cannot be overemphasized. Regulatory authorities in Nigeria (SEC, FRC & CBN) Therefore, to avoid the incidence of corporate failure in the listed recommend reforms that will improve transparency in conglomerate companies in Nigeria, this study recommends financial reporting, thereby increasing corporate practices and 100% compliance with the SEC code of CG in Nigeria. -
The Economic Aspects of Conglomerates
St. John's Law Review Volume 44 Number 5 Volume 44, Spring 1970, Special Article 10 Edition The Economic Aspects of Conglomerates Jerome B. Cohen Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/lawreview This Symposium is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in St. John's Law Review by an authorized editor of St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF CONGLOMERATES JEROME B. COHEN* THE )EVELOPMENT OF THE CONGLOMERATE TREND A conglomerate has been defined as "a kind of business that services industry the way Bonnie and Clyde serviced banks." Relatively few large mergers- involving concerns with assets of $10 million or more- occurring since World War II involved direct competi- tors, and the relative importance of such mergers has declined sharply. Whereas horizontal mergers comprised 38.8 percent of the assets of all large mergers in 1948-1951, this percentage had fallen to 4.2 percent in 1968. Vertical mergers have also declined in relative importance, falling from 23.8 percent of the assets in 1948-1951 to 7.2 percent in 1968. Conglomerates, on the other hand, rose from 37.5 percent in 1948-1951 to 88.5 percent of assets in 1968. The highest gain has come in the pure conglomerate category, which in 1968 accounted for 43.6 percent of the assets of all large mergers, as com- pared to 39 percent for product extension mergers and 5.9 percent for market extension mergers.