Final Word from Tuesday, December 12, 2017
A hostile takeover in the CR is often associated with spraying someone's fields or arranging to have a rival arrested, but in global business it's a ploy whereby the acquiring company goes around the management of the target company to make a deal directly with the shareholders. The management of the target company tries to prevent the deal, otherwise it would be a "friendly" takeover. PM Andrej Babiš would prefer a friendly merger of one or two of the "traditional" political parties into his government project but is meeting with resistance from the opposing "management" in ODS, KDU-ČSL and ČSSD. The "shareholders" of ČSSD are closest to rebelling against their "management" and demanding that a vote be taken, under threat of putting in new managers. Babiš no doubt hopes that this shareholder activism will spread. He wants members and voters of ODS, KDU and ČSSD to fear that their stock will plummet in value if their party isn't in on the deal. [Czech Republic mergers & acquisitions M&A]
Glossary of difficult words
ploy - a cunning plan or action designed to turn a situation to one's own advantage;
shareholder activism - an attempt by shareholders to influence a corporation's behavior by exercising their rights as owners;
to plummet - to fall or drop straight down at high speed;
to be in on something - to be part of something.