when a tender offer is made the bidding company must provide full and fair disclosure to shareholders and financial regulators any entity making a cash tender offer for a corporation must outline the source of the takeover funds the purpose for making a bid and the outlook of the acquired company that way shareholders have greater transparency into the potential outcomes of an acquisition 
the act aimed to strike a careful balance in the market for corporate governance by providing shareholders with timely information to thoughtfully evaluate tender offers and allowing managers an opportunity to win over shareholders in passing the legislation congress aimed to protect shareholders without making takeover attempts overly difficult they recognize takeovers can benefit shareholders and managers when the company is failing or needs new management time to update the williams act some experts believe the ongoing evolution of corporate governance calls for a comprehensive review of the williams act for one thing the enactment of federal and state antitakeover laws render the coercive tender offers the williams act sought to address ineffective in addition the demographic of shareholders for publicly traded companies has changed dramatically in the past 50 years today majority shareholders are knowledgeable have access to information and can make decisions on a moment s notice other things to consider is the emergence of active shareholders who pursue investments differently from corporate raiders of the past 