Employee and Consumer Protection in Mergers and Acquisitions

The decisions of a company affects a wide range of people from creditors, shareholders, employees, the general public; that is the consumer and even the government.One of such decisions includes a Merger, Acquisition or Take-over. The main reason why companies enter into a merger or an acquisition agreement is to consolidate their powers and control over government and markets. This may have diverse effect for other stakeholders of the company. The two major groups which will be considered by this research are the consumers and employees of two merging companies. Consumers are protected by the prevention of monopolistic tendencies or undue restriction of business enterprises which leads to rise in goods or services and the consumer paying more. The consumer is thereby left at the mercy of the company. The employees are protected by automatic transfer of employment or compulsory redundancy package in the event the new company cannot take all of all of them. This research analysis the extent to which the Laws regulating mergers and acquisitions in Nigeria has protected this two groups of people.