Mergers and acquisitions

Every profession develops specialized vocabularies; these serve to rid its internal discourse of cumbersome usages and to render complex ideas and practices in simple, concise terms, which, simplicity notwithstanding, may be perfectly opaque to the laymen. The field of corporate mergers and acquisitions describes its own participants and transactions with a set of terms which, if not lurid, is extremely colorful. A striking number of these terms derive from predation, crime, and warfare; some observers have cited this violent lexicon as evidence of a need for reform. This glossary presents short definitions of a selection of terms associated with mergers and acquisitions which have appeared in the extensive literature on the subject.,CRS 86-786 E,"July 16, 1986.",SuDoc# LC 14. 18/3