The Target’S Legal Origin and the Performance of the European Takeover Directive

The main objectives of the European Takeover Directive (ETD) are the protection of minority shareholders of target firms in takeovers and the integration of European capital markets through the creation of a level playing field. After 15 years since its transposition, we investigate whether the ETD´s aims have been achieved and whether the harmonization process has been affected by the legal origins of the country (French, Nordic and Germanic law traditions). For an in-depth analysis, we use a hand-collected database covering all takeovers launched in three countries representative of these legal traditions (Spain, Finland and Germany) during the period 2000(2)-2019