ShmoopTube

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finance a la shmoop what is the Williams Act

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

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

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

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

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

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was enacted mega glopped gargantuan strollers could launch a takeover bid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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