TY - JOUR AU - Mudzamiri, Justice AU - Osode, Patrick PY - 2021/08/24 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Reconciling the "Bittersweet Chemistry" between Technology and Corporate Takeovers through Reinforcing National Security Interests in Merger Control JF - Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal JA - PER VL - 24 IS - 0 SE - Special Edition: Corporate and Financial Markets 2021 DO - 10.17159/1727-3781/2021/v24i0a10741 UR - https://perjournal.co.za/article/view/10741 SP - 1 - 32 AB - <p>This article argues that company takeover regulation regimes must carefully balance two opposing notions. On the one hand, the regime must be designed to enable or facilitate the initiation and successful implementation of takeovers and mergers in the interests of economic growth and technological advancement. On the other hand, such a regulatory framework ought to be sensitive to the ever-increasing need to protect national security interests, especially from veiled threats. These threats include cybercrimes, private data hacking and espionage, which are endemic to takeovers contemplated by foreign persons that possess technological sophistication and are leaders in the rapidly unfolding Fourth Industrial Revolution. Recently some jurisdictions, such as the United States of America and the United Kingdom, have been active in reforming their investment laws to particularly strengthen the protection of national security interests. Similarly, in South Africa the debut introduction of section 18A of the <em>Competition Amendment Act</em> 18 of 2018 has enabled the addition of a concurrent but parallel standard to the pre-existing merger control criteria prescribed under section 12A of the <em>Competition Act</em> 89 of 1998. This article evaluates the efficacy of South Africa's framework for national security interests' protection in the context of merger control using its US and UK counterparts as comparators. Ultimately, the article proposes reforming the existing statutory and institutional framework to effectively accommodate national security interests in South African merger control.</p> ER -