Merger
a term in old English law, bearing on the relations between landon the relations between landlords and tenants. In its more modern significance it constitutes a form of industrial combination, generally known as a trust. By a merger a number of industrial establishments, or corporations, are combined under a joint ownership, through what is technically known as a holding company. The majority stock of the various corporations to be controlled is exchanged for stock in the holding company, which thus acquires majority control of all in common, the transaction not always being obvious to outsiders.
By a decision of the United States Supreme Court, in the case of the Northern Security Co., a holding company formed to control the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific railroad companies, mergers of this character were held to be illegal.