CORPORATE COMBINATIONS OR FAILED ACQUISITION ATTEMPTS: PARTIAL ACQUISITIONS BY POSNER AND NON‐POSNER FIRMS.

Corporate control is assumed to rest in management's hands in firms with widely dispersed share ownership, but ownership of a relatively small block of shares may be sufficient to give the blockholder at least some measure of control or influence. Although the influence of individuals or institutions holding large minority positions is generally believed to benefit all shareholders through improved monitoring of management, one corporation may be motivated to acquire a sizeable minority position in another to achieve the benefits of merger without incurring the costs of a complete takeover. Given this motivation, the interests of the corporate minority shareholder may differ considerably from the interests of other shareholders.