Buyer Beware: The Hidden Cost of Labor in an International Merger and Acquisition

Recent years have seen a huge growth in European cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and considerable attention has been given to how such deals arise and are completed. A U.S. investor must understand the basic difference in the principle of individual labor law in the U.S. and how it compares with the laws of the target country in an M&A. In the U.S., under the employment at-will doctrine, the U.S. private sector employers can dismiss their non-unionized employees at any time for...