Assented Stock

finance a la shmoop what is the Williams Act

well it's 28 Grand Slam singles titles 26 in doubles eight Olympic gold medals [William's sisters career stats appear]

a successful designer clothing company and an interior design firm yeah like

you really thought shmoop wouldn't go there for this one come on the Williams

Act the financial one is actually about making acquisitions or takeovers fair

and square you know like a tennis court before 1968 when the Williams Act 1.0 [People playing tennis]

was enacted mega glopped gargantuan strollers could launch a takeover bid

for micro Corp shakers Rattlers and Hum to make a vertically integrated

near-monopoly in baby hardware the bid could have come in on a Thursday giving [Bid appears on calendar]

shareholders 48 hours to respond with say a 20% premium over the current share

price take it by noon Monday or leave it in the deal's off the table shareholders

would then have to quickly scramble to figure out this was no is this a fair [Woman scrambling away]

deal a steal or something else done just to disrupt the market well a bunch of

companies were quote stolen unquote this way with boards having to scramble and [Robber running away from police]

often ending up with less than optimal or full value that they were supposed to

get for their shareholders who they represent so the Williams Act came along

and required there to be a whole range of filings and disclosures whenever a

public takeover was announced like the price the terms the mix of stock and

cash what the newly composed company would look like it's out its out cetera

and it also required that there be at least five days from when the initial [Five days on calendar highlighted]

takeover was announced to there being any kind of definitive agreement and

then quickly investors realized that five days wasn't long enough so less

than a decade later yeah things move slowly in a financial regulatory world [Cash falling]

the Williams Act pause button was extended to 20 days and that's where

things stand today so yeah the Williams Act ensures [Williams act stamped fairness]

fairness or at least it tries to and that fairness you know which cannot be

said for the taking no prisoners Williams sisters those two do not know

the meaning of mercy [Tennis ball hits girl on the head]