[Last updated: 1 January 2025, unless otherwise noted]

The public M&A market in Taiwan has continued to be active over the last few years. The major players, however, have shifted from multinational companies to local Taiwanese and PRC-based companies. Most of the high profile public M&A deals in the market relate to companies in the technology and financial industries. A tender offer followed by a cash merger or a share swap is one of the most commonly used transaction structures with respect to public M&A in Taiwan. Although tender offers may be used to accomplish hostile takeovers in other jurisdictions, given that hostile takeovers are historically rare in Taiwan, tender offers are usually used as a friendly takeover tool here. Nevertheless, a few acquirers have recently tried to accomplish hostile takeovers through a tender offer. Their takeover tactics and the anti-takeover defenses adopted by the target drew a large amount of attention in the market and similar transactions are expected to appear in the future.