Not exactly victory

Takeover battles usually end with two victories. The buyer wins the target company, and the target company’s shareholders win a big pile of cash. Thursday’s agreement to end the all-German fight between Continental AG and Schaeffler was far from usual. The privately held Schaeffler ends up with just under half the car-parts maker’s shares and is constrained by a four-year standstill agreement on strategy and financial structure – supervised by a former German prime minster. Conti’s shareholders...