Accountancy aspects of the takeover bids in Britain 1945-1965.

The earlier part of the thesis investigates the reasons for the considerable increase in take- overs within Britain during the 1950s. The most important of these reasons was the section of the Companies Act 1948 which enabled take-over bidders to by-pass the directors of a
company and appeal directly to its shareholders. This new opportunity coincided with circumstances which made shareholders more likely, than was previously the case, to accept offers for their shares. These circumstances are discussed together with other events, such as fiscal
changes, which affected take-over activity. Once the possibilities provided by the new situation became
realised , companies we re taken over for a large number of different reasons so one chapter is devoted to classifying these reasons, with examples of each.
Because a noticeable feature of take- overs has been the often substantial discrepancy between the value of the offer and the stock exchange price prior to the bid, a chapter has been devoted to considering factors to be taken into account when evaluating an offeree
company. Bidders have problems such as financing the take-overs, winning the acceptance of shareholders and coping wit h possible counter-bidders so one chapter mentions these difficulties and the techniques evolved for overcoming them. Directors not wishing their companies to be taken over have developed a variety of defensive measures, these have been classified and divided into two main groups, steps taken before a bid
has been made for the company and ad hoc measures to stave off an actual offer. The final chapter deals with some of the results of 20 years of take-overs, together with conclusions which have been drawn. The
author's contention is that the effect of post-war take- overs has been mainly beneficial though there are still some abuses which require remedying.