Mergers and the Evolution of Patterns of Corporate Ownership and Control: The British Experience

An intense academic debate has arisen recently concerning the crucial 'bedrock' that underpins a corporate governance regime where widely held public companies dominate. In the discourse, little has been said about the contribution of merger activity. This article seeks to address this gap by considering developments in the United Kingdom during the twentieth century. The British experience suggests that mergers matter with respect to the evolution of systems of ownership and control and that the manner in which anti-competitive behaviour is regulated influences the extent to which 'transformative' merger activity takes place.