Companies have been bought and sold for centuries and a sophisticated merger and acquisition (M&A) industry has developed to cater to the needs of buyers and sellers in all lines of business.

This voice narrated slideshow looks at the various ways one corporation can merge with or acquire another.

In a triangular merger, the acquirer creates a wholly-owned subsidiary, which in turn merges with the selling entity. The selling entity then liquidates. The acquirer is the sole remaining shareholder of the subsidiary.

Following a 1986 Delaware case, involving Revlon, when a company is for sale, the board of directors has a duty to act as auctioneer. The board is required to engage with interested buyers in order to get the best price and the best possible terms for all the company’s stakeholders.

In this video, you will get acquainted with tips on how to identify the best time and ways to sell your business.

This article outlines the stockholder vote requirements for a merger under Delaware law and California law.

This article provides an insight into the issues relating to board control in U.S. M&A transactions.

When selling a company, the board of directors has a duty to become "auctioneers" charged with getting the best price for the shareholders.

What are the steps in the acquisition process?

M&A transactions do not always involve large corporations taking over smaller companies. Through borrowed money, a “Leveraged Buyout”, allows a relatively small buyer to acquire a relatively large target company.

This voice narrated slideshow looks at the life of a startup in the context of a journey. It explores the exit routes, liquidation events and strategies for entrepreneurs to consider on the startup journey.

This video explains how startup exits from M&A dipped in 2011 and how the IPO climate makes for difficult times for venture investors.

The book, Zero-to-IPO, written by David Smith, plots out the life of a high-tech startup in the context of a journey. The journey starts at Zero with the formation of a private company to commercialize a new technology or invention. This journey terminates when the company reaches its destination, and ceases to exist as a private, independent corporation—at IPO, Acquisition or Shutdown.

The book, Dollar Value, written by David Smith, describes the techniques used to assess real-world valuations of technology-oriented assets and explains how the prices offered by buyers looking to acquire the ideas and productions of inventors, creators, developers and entrepreneurs can be predicted with some accuracy.

PDF slides for the learning material titled: "Video ~ Alternative Routes & Destinations".

PDF slides for the learning material titled: "Video ~ Avoiding Unintentional Poison Pills".

There are various techniques available for valuing a company. Some can produce inaccurate valuations in certain situations. Reviewing several valuations produced by various methods and calculating a weighted average may produce a figure that eliminates some of the extreme value assessments.

This voice narrated slideshow looks at techniques for assessing the market value of a patent under various scenarios.

PDF slides for the learning material titled: "Video ~ Patent Valuation".

This voice narrated slideshow identifies what is involved in selling a patent, and what patent holders can expect when they embark on the process of approaching potential patent buyers.

PDF slides for the learning material titled: "Video ~ Selling Your Patent".

Private equity is an important driver of economic growth in the US with firms investing hundreds of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy each year. However, there are a lot of misconceptions about the industry. This is a video about a commonly misunderstood aspect of private equity: carried interest.

If you have been approached by a potential acquirer of your business, you can expect that the acquirer will want to conduct a detailed "due diligence investigation" of your company's finances and operations.

This article provides a summary of the most significant legal and business due diligence activities that are connected with a typical M&A transaction.

A holdback is a sum of money that remains unpaid as reserve to cover certain contingencies. In merger and acquisition transactions, the buyer usually requires a proportion of the purchase price be held back in an escrow account to cover unforeseen costs that might arise after the acquisition transaction has been completed.

This report presents the findings of a study regarding holdback escrow accounts used in merger and acquisition transactions.

A Merger and Acquisitions (“M&A”) holdback escrow, where a portion of the purchase price of an acquisition is placed in a third party escrow account to serve as security for the buyer, is a common element in structuring business acquisitions, whether the transaction is an asset or stock sale, or a merger.

When the target shareholders disagree with a merger, and vote against the merger, but the merger takes place anyway, these dissenting shareholders have a right to an "Appraisal Remedy", whereby the buyer pays the dissenting shareholders fair market value for their shares in cash.