Definition: Take-over (of an enterprise)

Category: Business demography

Enterprises may integrate to the extent that the number of existing enterprises is reduced. If two enterprises integrate entirely, one of the enterprises may remain largely the same. In this case the other enterprise is generally much smaller, it is merely absorbed by the larger enterprise, which remains the same. If one of the enterprises keeps its identity, the event is called a take-over.

Enterprises taken over are not considered to be real deaths. In this case, one of the original enterprises does survive in a recognisable form, and therefore there is both continuity and survival. The remaining original enterprises are closed. This event can be seen as the opposite of a split-off. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/statmanuals/files/KS-RA-07-010-EN.pdf Eurostat, "Business Registers Recommendations Manual", 2010