One might assume that because Europe is so similar to the United States in so many ways, compliance issues would not be too difficult in a trans-Atlantic corporate merger. That assumption would cost you dearly.
Indeed, experts say, cross-border mergers are rife with legal risks and compliance minefields that can make a transaction considerably more costly, or even scuttle it. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and similar laws have heightened U.S. companies’ awareness of compliance, but that sensitivity often ends at the water’s edge.
