The article focuses on the cash take-overs and accounting valuations. In the past decade the annual number of cash take-over bids has increased over five hundred per cent, and the rate of increase is accelerating. A take-over bid is generally defined as a bid to purchase some or all of a corporation's stock made by an outsider. It may be an offer to exchange stock for stock or it may be an offer to pay cash for stock. The bidder that offers stock for stock loses the important advantage of surprise, since the issuing shares must be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in advance. The disclosure requirements which accompany the registration are complex and may be difficult to execute without access to the offeree's records. Because of the element of surprise, the cash tender is generally used when the bidder takes a position adverse to incumbent management. The atmosphere of secrecy in which these bids are launched has left many legislators, financiers and academicians uncertain as to how and why they occur.

Nine papers commissioned by Harvard Business School faculty for a colloquium in May 1992 delve into a variety of issues and developments faced by managers of financial intermediaries in the rapidly changing banking industry. They include deregulation, the thrift crisis, international insurance, and

Traces the evolution of international banking, focusing on the three principle markets of the investment banking industry.