Andrei Shleifer and Rob- ert W. Vishny, in Science (Aug. 17, 1990), 1333 H St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005.
The words "hostile takeover" evoke im- ages of ruthless billionaires tearing apart helpless companies and firing workers for sport. 1989, 143 huge corporations that belonged to the mighty Fortune 500 of 1980 had been swallowed up by other
companies. All told, $1.3
trillion in corporate assets
changed hands during the
1980s. What should have
been done to stop the take-...