The liability of firms that merge with, take over the assets of, or acquire the products of other companies is governed by the terms of the asset purchase agreement and the behavior of the firms subsequent to the agreement. Here, the authors review these two aspects of mergers and acquisitions and discuss the public policy and managerial implications of holding successor firms liable. The authors show that courts recently have expanded corporate liability under two of the six approaches available for making organizations take responsibility for injuries associated with the predecessor firm's products.
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