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BOOK REVIEW UK MERGER CONTROL By Jonathan Parker and Adrian Majumdar Consultant Editor and Contributor: Simon Pritchard Hart Publishing ISBN: 978 1 8494 60156 www.hartpub.co.uk HOW BIG IS TOO BIG? HERE’S AN UP-TO-DATE PRACTITIONERS’ GUIDE TO UK MERGER CONTROL An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers When big companies aim to get bigger, not necessarily by organic growth, but by merging with, or acquiring other companies, how far can they go in pursuit of their corporate aims? We’re talking here about size, power and control, hence the perceived need by governments to impose a merger control regime on business. The somewhat simplistic but important question of ‘how big is too big’ is legally addressed by our merger control legislation now contained in the Enterprise Act 2002, when merger control provisions came into force from June 2003. The Enterprise Act 2002, which replaced the Fair Trade Act, has modernized business practice across Europe. A new framework for merger control in the UK was thus provided for. The resulting changes have been complex, which is why ‘UK Merger Control’, newly released by Hart Publishing, is so sorely needed, especially at the time of writing in the summer of 2011 when issues relating to mergers and acquisitions have become big news again. We refer, in part of course, to the recent debacle surrounding News Corp and BSkyB, not to mention other recent controversial M & A issues. ‘UK Merger Control’ is a delightful practitioners’ book which offers insights and guidelines on how far, say, the business community can go in the pursuit of a merger, particularly if the organization concerned is exceptionally large, with millions in pounds, pence and people possibly at stake. As mentioned in the preface, the book focuses to a large extent on comparing the approach under the Enterprise Act with the approach taken under the Merger Regulations and to a lesser extent, guidelines in the USA. The aim has been to emphasise the many areas of importance to practitioners and, of course, their clients, including - to cite only one example - the concept of enterprises ceasing to be distinct. The book is laid out logically over almost 900 pages in eighteen chapters. It is Chapter 18, covering Judicial Review, which the typical practitioner will probably find particularly useful, dealing as it does with the various grounds for the review of decisions, together with, for example, selected procedural issues. Throughout the work takes a thorough, scholarly, yet practical approach to an extremely wide ranging and complex area of law, this book will be welcomed by practitioners, or indeed any other interested parties dealing with M & A issues. As one would expect from a work of this scope and stature, there are ample resources for further research, including tables of EU, UK and US cases and legislation, plus table of decisions. The publication date is cited as May 2011.

2022-10-21 05:38