Private equity, characterized by firms operating as privately held partnerships organizing the acquisition and quot;taking privatequot; of public companies, has recently dominated the business news due to deals unprecedented in number and size. If this buyout boom continues unabated, the 1989...

IIt is often assumed that strong securities markets require good legal protection of minority shareholders. This implies both quot;goodquot; law -- principally corporate and securities law -- and enforcement, yet there has been little empirical analysis of enforcement. We study private...

This paper, which was prepared for a University of Illinois College of Law symposium honoring Prof. Larry Ribstein, examines the origins of the market for corporate control in the United States. The standard historical narrative is that the market for corporate control took on its modern form in...

Delaware's courts and well-developed case law are widely seen as integral elements of Delaware's success in attracting incorporations. However, as we show using empirical evidence involving reported judicial decisions and filed cases concerning large mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts,...

The forthright brand of shareholder activism hedge funds deploy emerged by the mid-2000s as a major corporate governance phenomenon. This paper explains the rise of hedge fund activism and offers predictions about future developments. The paper begins by distinguishing the “offensive” form...

“Offensive shareholder activism” involves buying up sizeable stakes in underperforming companies and agitating for changes predicted to increase shareholder returns. Though hedge funds are currently highly publicized practitioners of this corporate governance tactic, there has been no...