美國法合併契約交易保護條款之研究－以合意併購為中心

The Research of Deal Protection Provisions in Merger Agreements in U.S. Law -- Focuses on the Friendly Merger

施建州(Chien-Chou Shih)

《管理與法遵》 2卷1期 (2017/01) Pp. 133-155

https://doi.org/10.6543/JMC.2017.0201.05

摘要

美國德拉瓦州衡平法院及最高法院歷來針對敵意併購案例中之交易保護措施，已發展出相當精密與彈性之適用法則；但是相對於此，於合意併購案例中之交易保護條款，其是否能於不違反董事受任人義務與產生併購綜效二者間取得有效之平衡，上開法院於實務案例中卻有相當不一致之見解，致適用上產生相當之疑義。本文以後者為研究之重心，審閱不同案例所設之事實與法律見解後，大致將其區分為如下兩大類型：一、於董事未經股東會決議之單方作為之情形；二、於董事會與股東會決議雙方行為所構成之情形，嘗試於不同類型之間區分適用之法則，亦即於前者應援用傳統的Unocal 加強司法審查標準，後者則應採程序性的市場測試標準，藉以有效避免二者交錯之灰色地帶所可能衍生的爭議。此外，亦希能透過本文的研究，為後續相關案例於國內發生時，提供有效處理的方式。

關鍵字

交易保護條款 ； 交易保護措施 ； 敵意併購 ； 合意併購 ； 受任人義務 ； 經營判斷原則 ； 加強司法審查標準 ； 市場測試標準

並列摘要

This article has focused on U.S Delaware Chancery Court and Supreme Courts' cases concerning the validity of the deal protection provisions contained in the friendly merger agreements, and has found that target companies may agree to deal protection provisions when they are not in the midst of an unconstrained last period problem. Because mergers throw the target's management team into a last period situation, the target must introduce some form of procedural constraint, such as a market check, as a prerequisite to protecting its deal. Having introduced such a constraint into its management team's last period decision-making, the target company should be free to agree to strong deal protection provisions. The Delaware Chancery Court and Supreme Courts' deal protection decisions follow this rule. Bartlett and IXC provide examples of last period problems that were checked by the constraint of a market test, thus validating the merger agreements' deal protections, while Phelps Dodge and ACE provide examples of uncontested, unchecked last period problems, requiring an invalidation of deal protections. The theoretical perspective of the last period problem thus brings internal consistency to the Chancery Court's deal protection quartet. Based on the discussions and findings under The Delaware Chancery Court and Supreme Court, this paper reviews the regulations of Business Mergers And Acquisitions Act in Taiwan and makes some recommendations to reform the regulations concerning the deal protection provisions in friendly merger agreements.

並列關鍵字

Deal Protection Provisions ； Deal Protection Measures ； Hostile Merger ； Friendly Merger ； Fiduciary Duty ； Business Judgement Rule ； Enhanced Judicial Scrutiny ； Market Check Mechanism

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