Affective meaning of M&A terms

8/12/2019 Affective meaning of M&A terms

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AFFECTIVE MEANINGS OF METAPHORICAL TERMS INM&A LANGUAGE

Denotative and affective meanings of metaphors can beexplained by their realising conceptual metaphors.


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1) Metaphorical model ACQISITIONS AREMIDIEVAL TOURNIQUETS

M&A terms ...recalls the days of chivalry

(Slater, 1999: 14).

Sub-model COMPANIES ARE KNIGHTS

1. WHITE KNIGHT


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A White knight is a company that is invited to make a friendly takeover offer to a targetcompany that is being faced with a hostile takeover from a separate party and therebyprevent its acquisition by the hostile bidder, a so-called black knight.

... a friendly buyer who is the modern-day parallel of the swordcarrying fellow arriving at

the castle, dramatically mounted on a horsehence he was known as a white knight(Slater,1999: 14).

A White knight (the "good guy") gallops in to make a friendly takeover offer to a targetcompany that is facing a hostile takeover from another party (a "black knight"). The whiteknight offers the target firm a way out with a friendly takeover.


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In retellings of the Arthur legends, many times the heroes wore light-coloured armor. Literalmeaning of the term white knight:

" Tell me, my sister, " said Vasilissa, " who was the whiteknightthat passed me

in the forest? " " He was the bright day. " (BNC)

If Marc was the ogre guarding the crock of gold, then Peter had to be cast asthe whiteknight, saving her from the dreaded dragon! (BNC)


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The metaphorical meaning of the M&A term white knight has obviously a positive meaning, which can bedefected through the collocates come along, galloped to the rescue, rescuer...to thwart this move, act as...to form a strongBritish company, headhunted to fight off, come along and protectin the following citations from BNC and COCA:

A whiteknight could come along and make a more friendly offer, but this hasn't happenedyet.(BNC)

A WHITEKnighthas galloped to the rescueof TVS Entertainment, the southern operator thatlost its money-spinning TV franchise in the shake up.(BNC)

December 1985, attempted to merge with Guinness, using it as a whiteknight (ie a friendlyrescuer) in an attempt to thwartthis move.(BNC)

During the takeover battle, it was suggested that Cadbury Schweppes should act asa white knight to Rowntree, in order to form a strong British company able to competeeffectively with the Swiss. (BNC)

Barrow was a WhiteKnight-- headhunted to fight off a corporate raider-- for whom Kennecotthad to pay over $1m. in order to match a clause in Barrow's contract with Exxon (BNC)

Awhiteknightto come in and protect them fromIBM. (COCA)


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A White knight is considered as a rescuer, called out to save struggling companies.As a non-term, it also possesses metaphorical meaning with positive connotations in thefollowing citations:

But a potential whiteknight emerged last night in the shape of President Bill

Clinton who, it emerged, would hold talks with Mr Patten in May.(BNC)As for the beleaguered Top Of The Pops, there's talk of a whiteknightriding into lead one last dash at the ratings. Jimmy Savile has offered to return and savethe show.(BNC)

+ the relatively small distance between the words white knightandsave

She'd dreamed of a whiteknightwho would rescueher. Someone who wouldnever hit her.(COCA)


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BUT as it was found in this BNC citation, white knightdoesn't only have a positive meaningof a rescuer:

The shares, however, rose 6p to 648p, indicating that the market continues toexpect either a higher offer or the interventionof a whiteknight, possibly fromcontinental Europe.(BNC)

This can be explained by the fact that a businesswhite knightdoesn't savecompanies disinterestedly as its source domain's counterpart, a white knightgets some benefits from his saving work though it acquires the firm that is incrisis, after acquisition, the knight then rebuilds the firm, or integrates it intoitself.


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2. BLACK KNIGHT

A Black knightis a company that makes a hostile takeover offer on atarget company. An allusion to the evil villain of many fairytales, this

term demonstrates how a targeted company sees its adversary.

In literature the villains wear black-coloured armor:

A blackknight appeared, as though out of profound shadow,on the surface of the ultimately narrow board.(BNC)


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Affective negative meaning of the metaphorical term black knight can betraced in citations through its collocates such as against and evil in thesecitations:

Added poison pill against possible black knight, Harold

Simmons (which see). (COCA)While notparticularly welcome, the blackknight is consideredthe lesser of two evils.(BNC)

Thus, the metaphorical terms white knightand black knightcreate

metaphorical networks of antonyms.


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2) Animal metaphors in M&A terms

1. BEAR HUGS

The bear hugis a hostile takeover attempt that is done in such a

ways that the board of directors of the company find itimpossible to not accept the bid.


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This metaphorical term has a discernible affective meaning,which can be observed through collocations in the following

GRC examples:

Some bear hug announcements are mainly designed to be disruptiveto rivalsBear-hug proposals start with an unsolicited offer for a company that is generousenough to make the target consider it and prompts the target to make it public.

the bear hug is used to bring the proposal to the attention of target shareholdersin the hope that shareholders will pressurethe board to negotiate with the bidder.

the target board withstood the pressure from the bear hug proposal and thepublic and private agitation from some of its shareholders, forcingSABMiller totake its proposal directly to shareholders by way of a hostile takeover bid.


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In contrast, general meaning of bear hug can have rather positive connotations as wellas connotations of intensity in COCA citations:

He looks me up and down and then grabs me in a bear hug, and that's my nextsurprise, the way he squeezes the air right out of me, and not just because he's strongernow.His response? He caught me up in a near ribcrackingbearhug, then turned and left.I launched from the hatch and grabbed Tab in a bearhug, squeezing her as tightly...He wrappedher ina bearhugand leaned down to kiss the top of her headhave strong arms and a soft heart, who wrap us in asmotheringbearhugthat makeseverything seem all right.

I started laughing and gave him a big olebearhug.the man whod always greeted her with a smile and a big, warmbearhug.

Though, there are occurrences of negative connotations of bear hug:

He presses me to his chest in a murderousbearhugas we roll.whooshed out of her lungs as he squeezed her upper body in a fiercebearhugagainst

the floorCollocations with the lexeme BEAR (COCA):


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1 POLAR 951 3410 27.89 12.47

2 BLACK 851 176914 0.48 6.61

3 GRIZZLY 625 1707 36.61 12.86

4 BROWN 240 66058 0.36 6.21

5 BIG 217 207428 0.10 4.41

6 GREAT 131 215493 0.06 3.63

7 WHITE 123 208277 0.06 3.59

8 YOUNG 119 160331 0.07 3.92

9 GOLDEN 112 23317 0.48 6.61

10 STUFFED 100 7092 1.41 8.16

11 SLEEPING 60 16484 0.36 6.21

12 GUMMY 46 349 13.18 11.39

13 BERENSTAIN 41 82 50.00 13.31

14 RUSSIAN 35 27279 0.13 4.71

15 WILD 32 31133 0.10 4.39

This lexeme doesn't have many negative connotations as can be seen on thetable. Thus, we may conclude that metaphorical senses may have strongeraffective meanings than their literal counterparts.
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2. SHARK REPELLENT

That is a term for any one of a number of measures taken by a company to fend off an unwanted orhostile takeover attempt, e. g. poison pills, scorched earth policies, golden parachutes and safeharbor strategies.

Metaphor ACQUIRING COMPANIES ARE SHARKSIn this metaphor we can also observe transference of affective meaning from the source domain tothe target domain:

A Tenneco buyback, announced in the face of takeover threats, was described byBusiness Week as " potentsharkrepellent(COCA)Saturday night specials were pitted against white knights and corporate managers whofended off their attackerswith poison pills and sharkrepellent.(COCA)

There are some COCA examples of usage of the lexeme SHARK to prove its negative connotations:reminding people about the two fatalsharkattacks of last yearhundreds of men being attackedand eatenby sharks.had witnessed terrifyingsharkattacks on crew members.Now swimming harder, I yet try to avoid maraudingsharks.Worldwide there were twelve deadlysharkattackslast year


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CONCLUSIONS

It was shown that a conceptual metaphor has an important role indetermining metaphorical affective meaning studied here through

lexical sets and connotations.

Affective meaning of M&A terms

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