The most important takeover battle in years has reached a crescendo. While campaigning in Pittsburgh at the start of the month Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said that US Steel should be owned and run by Americans, echoing a sentiment expressed earlier in the year by both President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, her Republican rival. The speech provoked the steelmaker—which had agreed to a takeover by Nippon Steel, a Japanese rival, for $15bn—to shoot back. Not only were workers rallying in support of the deal, it said, but the firm would consider lay-offs and moving its headquarters from the city should the takeover fall apart. Mr Biden is expected to block the deal imminently, and US Steel’s share price has plunged (see chart 1). His intervention could mark the end of a pantomime that has busied lawyers, bankers and lobbyists all year.
Source: Business - economist.com
