Vodafone-Mannesmann Takeover

British telecommunications company Vodafone completed a 183 billion dollar hostile takeover of Germany's Mannesmann in February 2000 after a bruising months-long bidding battle, remaining the largest corporate merger in history for over two decades. The deal was a landmark moment for cross-border hostile takeovers in continental Europe, where such tactics had previously been rare, and it also became notorious for a later German bribery trial over payments made to Mannesmann executives during the takeover. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/