A review of the market in the Financial Times shows lawyers devising 'new ways' to let companies merge and deal with global takeover rules. In many cases, activist investors are also throwing up extra blocks and challenges for the management teams and their lawyers.

No precedent

A merger between two semiconductor equipment makers, Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron, had 'no precedent' as it was the first to use a stock-for-stock merger between a US and a Japanese corporation. They used a Dutch holding company as the way through. Keith Flaum of Weil Gotshal acted for Applied Materials. He said: 'This is definitely the coolest deal I’ve ever done because of the structural complexity.' 

Activists

Regarding activist investors, law firms have repeatedly been asked to advise on how to handle them. Firms on Wall St have developed practices which deal with these issues. Activist investor issues are themselves becoming more complicated, and lawyers accept that this area will grow rather than go away. Source: Financial Times