Browse > Home / Business, M&A, US / Bush asked Abe to explain “Triangular Mergers”

Bush asked Abe to explain “Triangular Mergers”

May 15, 2007
By Ken Worsley


Sometimes you’re not sure if you should laugh or cry, and this story falls into that category:

During their meeting at Camp David on April 27, in an effort to demonstrate that Japan continues to exhibit more open trade and business policies with the United States, Prime Minister Abe reportedly told President Bush, “Japan welcomes investments from foreign companies. Based on this stance, Japan has decided to authorize triangular mergers, starting in May.” Bush proceeded to ask Abe what he meant by “triangular mergers,” which apparently dismayed the Prime Minister, who reportedly responded, “This is a measure which the United States strongly requested…I faced lots of criticism that if the triangular merger were authorized, it would open the path for giant U.S. companies to absorb Japanese companies.”

Of course, the US Embassy’s Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan and the European Business Community had all strongly requested that Japan allow triangular mergers to be legalized.

Filed Under Business, M&A, US 

Social Bookmarks:
del.icio.us:Bush asked Abe to explain  digg:Bush asked Abe to explain  newsvine:Bush asked Abe to explain  furl:Bush asked Abe to explain  reddit:Bush asked Abe to explain
Related Posts:
Yet another domestic food scandal; Bush to lobby for US beef
May Day is Triangular Merger Day in Japan
Nikkei pounded again; looking to the Bush administration for economic relief measures a bad strategy
Interview with Tom Standage, Business Editor of The Economist
Have Japanese equities hit bottom yet?

Comments

2 Responses to “Bush asked Abe to explain “Triangular Mergers””

  1. John S on May 17th, 2007 4:06 pm

    Is anyone surprised? Abe’s a fool for thinking Bush would be paying attention
    to such things.

  2. Yet another domestic food scandal; Bush to lobby for US beef : Japan Economy News & Blog on December 2nd, 2007 11:29 pm

    […] (no thanks to Kyodo for already removing the link to the story). It will be interesting to see if Bush, the man who asked former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to describe what a ‘triangular merger…, presses Fukuda on Japan’s own food safety […]

Got something to say?