Depuis les dernières années, les marchés financiers ont été marqués par une volonté des investisseurs, dont les fonds d’investissement privés, de privatiser des sociétés publiques. Plusieurs fermetures de capital se sont matérialisées par des acquisitions par voie d’emprunt (aussi connues sous le nom « leverage buy-out »), en raison notamment des taux d’intérêt peu élevés, d’un crédit plus accessible et d’un certain resserrement de la réglementation applicable aux sociétés publiques. S’inscrivant dans ce contexte, le présent mémoire de maîtrise s’intéresse particulièrement à l’impact des jugements rendus dans le cadre du litige relatif à l’offre d’acquisition par voie d’emprunt de BCE inc. sur les conceptions traditionnelles des devoirs des administrateurs. Dans cette affaire, les détenteurs de débentures de la filiale à part entière de BCE inc., Bell Canada, se sont vigoureusement opposés à cette acquisition. Cette transaction, d’une envergure sans précédent dans l’histoire du Canada, a été scrutée jusqu’à la plus haute instance décisionnelle au pays quant à son caractère raisonnable et équitable et à son effet potentiellement oppressif envers les détenteurs de débentures. Cette étude abordera d’abord l’évolution de la jurisprudence du Delaware sur les devoirs des administrateurs, dans le contexte d’un changement de contrôle, juridiction phare en droit des sociétés aux États-Unis et source d’inspiration marquée en droit canadien. Ensuite, nous nous attarderons sur la position du droit canadien et sur un arrêt marquant rendu par la Cour suprême du Canada, dans l’affaire Peoples. Sur cette toile de fond, cette analyse sera complétée par un examen des motifs des décisions rendues par les trois instances judiciaires dans l’affaire BCE et une réflexion sur l’impact de ces décisions sur le droit des sociétés au Canada. / In recent years, financial markets have been marked by investors’ willingness, including private investment funds, to privatize public corporations. Several privatizations have been realized through acquisitions by way of a leveraged buy-out, partly because of low interest rates, a more available credit and a certain tightening of regulations applicable to public corporations. In this context, this master thesis focuses on the impact on traditional legal concepts of the directors’ duties, further to the series of judgments rendered in the litigation regarding the leveraged buy-out offer by a consortium led by Teachers on BCE Inc. In this case, the debentureholders of the wholly owned subsidiary of BCE Inc., Bell Canada, have strongly opposed the acquisition. On an unprecedented scale in Canadian history, this transaction has been scrutinized by the highest Court of the country for its fair and reasonable character and its potentially oppressive character on debentureholders. This study will initially address the evolving jurisprudence of Delaware on directors' duties in the context of a change of control. Delaware is the leading jurisdiction in corporate law in the United States and has therefore inspired the Canadian law. Then, this thesis will more particularly focus on the position of Canadian law and a landmark decision rendered by the Supreme Court of Canada in the case Peoples. This analysis will be complemented by a study of the underlying reasons rendered by the three levels of courts in the case of BCE and a discussion on the impact of these decisions on corporate law in Canada.

Med denna socialpsykologiska studie ville vi få en ökad förståelse för vad socialt stöd upplevdesbetyda för rehabiliterande individers syn på sin psykiska ohälsa. De åtta intervjuernagenomfördes i anslutning till ett rehabiliteringsprojekt för personer med psykisk ohälsa i enav Sveriges kommuner. De intervjuade personerna var inskrivna i rehabiliteringsprojektet ochdeltog i dess aktiviteter. Resultatet visade att dialoger med personer som hade erfarenhet avliknande psykisk ohälsa och professionella hade störst inverkan på individernas syn på sinpsykiska ohälsa. I analysen använde vi Goffmans teori om stigma, Meads teori om rollövertagandeoch Bubers dialogteori. Enligt analysen bidrog personer med liknande psykisk ohälsaoch professionella till vad vi kallar frigörande dialoger, där respondenterna kunde bli förståddaoch accepterade såsom de var. Betydelsen dessa personer hade för individernas förståelseoch acceptans menar vi baserades på deras förståelse genom sitt igenkännande och sittarbete. Vi menar att denna nivå av förståelse inte kunde fås av personer utan dessa egenskaper,oavsett vem det var, om inte kunskapen skaffades. / With this social psychological study we wanted to gain an increased understanding of whatimportance the social support had for how rehabilitative individuals' look at their mental illness.The eight interviews were conducted in a rehabilitation project for people with mentalillness in one of Sweden's municipalities. The people we interviewed were enrolled in the rehabilitationproject and participated in its activities. The result showed that dialogue withpeople who had experience from similar mental illness and professionals had greatest impacton how the respondents' looked at their mental illness. In the analysis, we used Goffman’stheory of stigma, Mead’s theory of role taking and Buber’s theory of dialogue between individuals.According to our analysis, people with similar mental health and professionals contributedto what we call liberating dialogues in which respondents could be understood andaccepted as they were. We mean that the significance these people had for the individual'sunderstanding and acceptance was based on their understanding by their recognition andwork. We mean that this understanding could not be obtained by any person without suchproperties, no matter who it was, if the knowledge wasn’t acquired.

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Submitted by Eduardo Cotrim (edulucascotrim@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-09-11T21:41:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_ELC_final revisada.pdf: 901904 bytes, checksum: 34ced8d99037b195a9bf9d7a754202cf (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Joana Martorini (joana.martorini@fgv.br) on 2017-09-11T22:25:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_ELC_final revisada.pdf: 901904 bytes, checksum: 34ced8d99037b195a9bf9d7a754202cf (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-12T16:45:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_ELC_final revisada.pdf: 901904 bytes, checksum: 34ced8d99037b195a9bf9d7a754202cf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-09 / In the last decades several papers have tried to estimate and explain the existence of control block premium in a number of countries. A lot of factors are related to it, like the private benefits of control, shareholder structure, the stage of corporate governance development in each country, idiosyncratic characteristics of the companies, etc. This paper studies the Brazilian stock market taking into account the evolution occurred since the early 2000 in terms of laws and rules of corporate governance. It was found that a high premium is paid to take control of the companies in Brazil and that larger premiums are verified in transaction involving companies with lower corporate governance practices. / Nas últimas décadas diversos estudos tiveram por objetivo quantificar e explicar a existência de prêmios pago por blocos de controle em inúmeros países. Muitos fatores estão relacionados a tal variável, como benefícios privados derivados do controle, estrutura acionária, estágio de evolução da governança corporativa em cada economia, aspectos específicos referentes às companhias, etc. Este trabalho aborda o mercado de capitais brasileiro em um ambiente mais desenvolvido em termos de leis e governança corporativa se comparado aos trabalhos acadêmicos do início da década de 2000. Foi verificado que existe um prêmio de controle significante nas transações com alienação de controle no país, além de haver indícios de que os maiores prêmios sejam pagos em transações envolvendo empresas listadas em segmentos de governança corporativa mais baixos.

As medidas defensivas contra tomadas de controle constituem o núcleo de estudo desta dissertação. São instrumentos jurídicos adotados principalmente por companhias abertas com dispersão acionária, visando à proteção contra uma eventual tentativa de tomada de controle. O assunto é de especial interesse no atual momento do mercado de capitais brasileiro, que vem apresentando significativo desenvolvimento nos últimos anos e propiciando meios para a proliferação no Brasil de companhias abertas com dispersão acionária. O estudo do tema é feito concomitantemente à crescente utilização no Brasil de proteções contra tomadas de controle, inclusive por companhias não dotadas de dispersão acionária. Algumas medidas defensivas são inspiradas na experiência prática de outros países e vêm sendo transplantadas para o Brasil sem a adequada harmonização às características do nosso regime jurídico. Este trabalho analisa os efeitos da utilização de medidas defensivas e, na medida do possível, a admissibilidade da adoção de determinadas defesas no Brasil. São também abordados os balizamentos para a postura da administração de companhias diante de tentativas de tomada de controle. São estudados os padrões de tratamento do tema nos principais modelos existentes na experiência internacional, a fim de fornecer subsídios para a criação de uma identidade brasileira no tratamento das defesas contra tentativas de tomada de controle. / The defensive anti-takeover measures constitute the core area of study in this dissertation. These are legal devices adopted mainly by publicly-held companies with widespread ownership dispersion, aiming at protection against an eventual takeover attempt. The subject is of special interest at the current moment of the Brazilian capital markets, which have shown significant development in the recent years, providing means for the proliferation in Brazil of publicly-held companies with widespread ownership dispersion. The study of the issue is done concomitantly with the increase of utilization in Brazil of anti-takeover protections, including by companies without widespread ownership dispersion. Some defensive measures are inspired by the practical experience of other countries, being transplanted to Brazil without the proper harmonization with the characteristics of our own legal system. This work analyzes the effects of the utilization of defensive measures and, to the extent possible, the admissibility of adoption of certain defenses in Brazil. The boundaries for the behavior of the management of companies under takeover attempts are also approached. The patterns for the treatment of this issue in the main existing models in foreign experience are studied, so as to provide subsidies to the creation of a Brazilian identity in the treatment of the defenses against takeover attempts.

全球併購浪潮下，敵意併購向來是併購議題中備受矚目的焦點，許多國家均針對敵意併購設有明確的法規範，而我國自2002年通過企業併購法以來，已歷經十五年，在敵意併購相關法制的建構上卻顯有不足，導致實務上面臨許多問題。蓋我國近年來引發高度關注的敵意併購案件，幾乎皆以失敗收場，且雙方攻擊防禦的過程中往往演變為經營權惡鬥，不僅兩敗俱傷，亦使公司及股東利益蒙受損失。 有鑑於前述情況，本文擬從實證觀點探討我國企業環境與文化脈絡對於敵意併購之影響，並透過國內曾發生過的案例、主管機關的態度與法院見解，對我國現行法制進行反思。另外，本文亦藉由美國、英國、德國、歐盟和日本之比較法研究，從目標公司採行防禦措施之相關規範、對於股東之資訊揭露以及少數股東權益保障等面向，討論出可能且適合用於我國之規範方向，以作為建構我國敵意併購法制之參考。 / In the wave of global mergers and acquisitions, hostile takeover has long been a focal point on the issues relating to mergers and acquisitions. Many countries have already built up more transparent regulatory regimes specifically for hostile takeover activities. However, since Taiwan promulgated the Business Mergers and Acquisitions Act in 2002, the relevant laws and regulations were not sufficient to govern hostile takeover activities during the past fifteen years and a number of issues arose in practice. In recent years, the well-known hostile takeover cases in Taiwan all ended up in failure. The actions taken by the party initiating hostile takeover and the target company often led to corporate control contests, making both parties and the shareholders suffer losses. This thesis examines the influences of Taiwanese culture and corporate environment on hostile takeover. It also marks the deficiencies of the current regulatory regime in Taiwan by reviewing the hostile takeover cases, the opinions of the competent authority and the judicial judgements. In addition, this thesis introduces the legislations of the United States, England, Germany, European Union, and Japan on anti-takeover tactics, information disclosure as well as the protection of minority shareholders’ rights and interests. The thesis then analyzes whether these legal systems are suitable as a reference for Taiwan to establish relevant laws and regulations in the future.

This work deals with valuable consideration when changes of ownership of equity securities occur in connection with corporate changes in joint-stock company, especially with unwilling changes -- rise of registered capital with excluding the priority subscription right (§ 204a/5 of the Commercial Code), unwilling transfer of shares on the major shareholder (§ 354 of the "Act on the changes of commercial companies and associations") and squeeze out (§ 183i of the Commercial Code). Valuable consideration defines relatively in detail the Takeover Bid Act. This framework could be to certain extent analogically used for valuable consideration in unwilling transaction. However, its definition itself offers a considerable room for interpretation, so is also seized as the independent secondary topic (chapter 1). The main topic concerns two basic aspects. The first is a company evaluation. In this aspect we will take a look only at the dependence of the expert providing the evaluation on major shareholder (chapter 5). Work aims at the second problematic aspect of unwilling transaction - a premium over the valuable consideration for the infringement of right (chapter 2, especially section 2.4.). The work also deals with unevaluated risks of minority shareholders in the period beginning the day to which the company was evaluated to time of the pay out of ownership (chapter 4).

<p>Emerging technologies such as real-time travel information systems and automated vehicles (AVs) have profound impacts on driver decision-making behavior. While they generally have positive impacts by enabling drivers to make more informed decisions or by reducing their driving effort, there are several concerns related to inadequate consideration of cognitive and psychological aspects in their design. In this context, this dissertation analyzes different aspects of driver cognition and psychology that arise from drivers’ interactions with these technologies using physiological data collected in two sets of driving simulator experiments.</p> <p>This research analyzes the latent cognitive and psychological effects of real-time travel information using electroencephalogram (EEG) data measured in the first set of driving simulator experiments. Using insights from the previous analysis, a hybrid route choice modeling framework is proposed that incorporates the impacts of the latent information-induced cognitive and psychological effects along with other explanatory variables that can be measured directly (i.e., route characteristics, information characteristics, driver attributes, and situational factors) on drivers’ route choice decisions. EEG data is analyzed to extract two latent cognitive variables that capture the driver’s cognitive effort during and immediately after the information provision, and cognitive inattention before implementing the route choice decision. </p> <p>Several safety concerns emerge for the transition of control from the automated driving system to a human driver after the vehicle issues a takeover warning under conditional vehicle automation (SAE Level 3). In this context, this study investigates the impacts of driver’s pre-warning cognitive state on takeover performance (i.e., driving performance while resuming manual control) using EEG data measured in the second set of driving simulator experiments. However, there is no comprehensive metric available in the literature that could be used to benchmark the role of driver’s pre-warning cognitive state on takeover performance, as most existing studies ignore the interdependencies between the associated driving performance indicators by analyzing them independently. This study proposes a novel comprehensive takeover performance metric, Takeover Performance Index (TOPI), that combines multiple driving performance indicators representing different aspects of takeover performance. </p> <p>Acknowledging the practical limitations of EEG data to have real-world applications, this dissertation evaluates the driver’s situational awareness (SA) and mental stress using eye-tracking and heart rate measures, respectively, that can be obtained from in-vehicle driver monitoring systems in real-time. The differences in SA and mental stress over time, their correlations, and their impacts on the TOPI are analyzed to evaluate the efficacy of using eye-tracking and heart rate measures for estimating the overall takeover performance in conditionally AVs.</p> The study findings can assist information service providers and auto manufacturers to incorporate driver cognition and psychology in designing safer real-time information and their delivery systems. They can also aid traffic operators to incorporate cognitive aspects while devising strategies for designing and disseminating real-time travel information to influence drivers’ route choices. Further, the study findings provide valuable insights to design operating and licensing strategies, and regulations for conditionally automated vehicles. They can also assist auto manufacturers in designing integrated in-vehicle driver monitoring and warning systems that enhance road safety and user experience.

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Over the last decades, Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) have become key strategic alternatives to organic growth, enabling firms to expand in new geographies, broaden their product or service portfolios, increase their market power or diversify their business activities, for instance. Historically, although M&A deals have occurred in cyclical patterns, the number of transactions as well the total amount invested have followed an increasing trend. For instance, in 2021, the number of M&A deals conducted worldwide even peaked at an absolute record of 63,215 deals, for a total amount of $5,800 billion, comparable to the annual GDP of a country like Japan. Although the literature on M&A is vast and multi-disciplinarian, the performance of such transactions as well as their influencing factors have remained debated issues. This paper-based dissertation investigates the implications of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on financial markets’ anticipations in the context of M&A announcements. The first manuscript (Manuscript A) corresponds to a literature review on the determinants to financial markets’ reactions around M&A announcements. The second manuscript (Manuscript B) investigates the impact of both acquirers- and targets’ CSR engagements as well as their CSR profiles distance on synergetic gains anticipated by financial markets around M&A announcements. The third manuscript (Manuscript C) focuses on the impact of acquiring firms’ CSR engagement on the accuracy of financial markets’ anticipations with regards to the long-term operating performance of M&A deals. The fourth manuscript (Manuscript D) analyses whether acquirers’ CSR performance impacts M&A premia, since the premia offered to target shareholders contain acquiring managements’ anticipations regarding potential synergetic gains and are by the way critical to the deals’ value creation processes.