In the law of corporations, a merger is effected when one or more corporations becomes a part of, or merges, with another corporation so that one ceases to exist and the other continues to exist. In a merger, the company that continues to exist retains its name and identity and acquires the assets, liabilities, franchises, and powers of the corporation that ceases to exist. Attorneys who practice in mergers and acquisitions (sometimes called M & A) represent corporations and other business entities in strategizing, negotiating, and carrying out transactions in which two or more companies or corporations combine into a single new entity, a merger, or where one business purchases and absorbs the assets of another, an acquisition.
West Point is a city in Harris and Troup Counties in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 3,382. The Harris County portion of West Point is part of the Columbus, Georgia-Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area, while the Troup County portion is part of the LaGrange Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its first name was Franklin (there is now another Franklin, Georgia). The town's current name comes from being near the westernmost point on the Chattahoochee River, where its southwestward flow from the mountains and by Atlanta quickly turns toward the south-southeast to form the state line with Alabama. Lake West Point was created by the Army Corps of Engineers at this point for flood control, just upstream from the town, which flooded when the dam nearly overflowed in late spring of 2003. Excessive thunderstorm rains upstream in the Atlanta metro area the day before, combined with the same situation locally that day, in addition to allegedly poor forecasting of lake levels and inflow, would have exceeded the capacity of the lake and topped the dam had the emergency release not been made. While this avoided an outright dambreak and catastrophic failure, the town flooded more so than any time since the dam had been built. Still, the town was spared a much worse fate, as flooding would have been seriously worse without the dam. The Atlanta & LaGrange Railroad was renamed the Atlanta & West Point Railroad for the town, and the town of East Point was named so for being at the opposite end of the line near Atlanta.