Implicit claim
A tacit rather than contractual promise of continuing service and delivery of expected quality to customers and job security to employees.

Incentive stock option (ISO)
An executive compensation plan to align the interests of managers with stockholders. Executives are issued options whose exercise price is equal to or greater than the stock price at the time of issue and thus have value only if the stock price rises, giving managers incentives to take actions to maximize stock price.

Increased debt capacity hypothesis
A theory that postmerger financial leverage increases are the result of increased debt capacity (as opposed to the firms involved having been underleveraged before the merger) due to reduced expected bankruptcy costs.

Indenture
The contract between a firm and its bondholders that sets out the terms and conditions of the borrowing and the rights and obligations of each party (covenants).

Industry life cycle
A conceptual model of the different stages of an industry's development. (1) Development stage--new product, high investment needs, losses. (2) Growth stage--consumer acceptance, expanding sales, high profitability, case of entry. (3) Maturity stage--sales growth slows, excess capacity, prices and profits decline--key period for merger strategy. (4) Decline stage--substitute products emerge, sales growth declines, pressure for mergers to survive.

Inferior-vote stock
In dual-class stock firms, the class of common stock that has less voting power (e.g., may be able to elect only a minority on the board of directors; may be compensated with higher dividends).

Information asymmetry
A game or decisions in which one party has more information than other players.

In play
Because of a bid or turnouts of a bid, the financial community regards the company as receptive or vulnerable to takeover bids.

Initial public offering (IPO)
The first offering to the public of common stock (e.g., of a former privately held firm) or a portion of the common stock of a hitherto wholly owned subsidiary.

Insider trading
Some parties take action based on information net available to outside investors.

Internal rate of return (IRR)
A capital budgeting method that finds the discount rate (the IRR) that equates the present value of cash inflows and investment outlays. The IRR must equal or exceed the relevant risk-adjusted cost of capital for the project to be acceptable.

Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (IAA)
Federal securities legislation providing for registration and regulation of investment advisers.

Investment Company Act of 1940 (ICA)
Federal securities legislation regulating publicly owned companies in the business of investing and trading in securities; subjects them to SEC rules. Amended in 1970 to place more controls on management compensation and sales charges.

Investment requirements
Include capital expenditures and additions to working capital. Can be expressed as a percentage of revenues or as a percentage of changes in revenues.

Investment requirements ratio
A firm's investment expenditures (or opportunities) in relation to after-tax cash flows.

 

資料來源：J. Fred Weston, Mark L. Mitchell, and J. Harold Mulherin, “Takeovers, Restructuring, and Corporate Governance”, Forth Edition, Pearson Educational International