In Conversation with Dr. Samuel Lee

Samuel Lee (Santa Clara University and ECGI Research Member) joins Tom Gosling to discuss his award-winning theoretical paper, The Evolution of the Market for Corporate Control, co-authored with Mike Burkart and Paul Voss.

🏆 Winner of the 2025 ECGI Finance Prize, the paper challenges conventional explanations of how and why hostile takeovers have given way to a new governance force: takeover activism.

Key discussion points are: 

• Hostile takeovers have declined, not solely due to legal constraints, but because activist-led sales often provide a more efficient path to corporate change.
• Activist investors now operate on the sell side, pushing firms to be acquired rather than seeking control themselves.
• Activist hedge funds and private equity buyers increasingly work together, forming a complementary dynamic in control transactions.
• Tender offers still exist but are now mostly used in thin markets or when coordination among blockholders is difficult.
• Increased investor participation makes the market for corporate control more efficient, shifting contests from confrontation to negotiation.
• The evolution of control markets is driven by internal market forces and incentives, not just external regulatory changes.
• The paper provides a new theoretical model that explains how activist and buyer roles help solve governance challenges like free rider problems and information asymmetries.

We hope you enjoy the conversation. For more interviews in this series, visit this page.