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M&A activity is breaking records, and that volume is surfacing a structural shift: employee stock ownership plans are now active participants on both sides of deals, appearing as acquirers and as acquisition targets.
That dual role affects who controls the economics of a transaction and who stands to gain when one closes. ESOPs are retirement benefit structures through which employees own stakes in their company.
In a deal, that ownership changes the mechanics considerably. When an ESOP acts as the buyer, it is acquiring on behalf of a workforce with a direct financial interest in how the transaction prices and closes.
When a company carrying an ESOP becomes the target, employees hold a real stake in the outcome rather than watching proceedings as bystanders. Neither scenario is unprecedented.
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