Takeovers and Value Creation: Comparative Perspectives

On Friday, April 26 ^th, UC Davis School of Law together with the SMART (Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade) project hosted a workshop, Takeovers and Value Creation: Comparative Perspectives. The goal of the workshop was to discuss how the consideration of sustainability in takeovers may have an impact on business and takeover regulation. In the takeover context, underlying tensions between short-term and long-term, between maximization of returns for shareholders and the creation of sustainable value for business, society and the environment, come to a head. On both sides of the Atlantic, a major topic which has escaped ongoing takeover debates is how laws can be set in place to maintain or create sustainable value.

I helped organize the workshop with Beate Sjåfjell, University of Oslo Faculty of Law. For 2018-2019, Professor Sjåfjell is a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley Haas Business School, with a Fulbright scholarship. It was a day of robust discussion and knowledge-sharing. And we were excited to host participants from a variety of jurisdictions, including the United States, Canada, UK, Netherlands and Norway.