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.
Joppa, Maryland in Harford County, Maryland is now a planning region for the county, but there was originally a town at the center called Joppa. Joppa was founded as a British colonial settlement in the early 1700s, and takes its name from the biblical town of Joppa. The town of Joppa, on the Gunpowder River traded internationally in agricultural products, especially tobacco. At its peak, the port was home to about 50 homes, a church, prison, inns, shops, schools, armament factories, and warehouses. However, with the rise of Baltimore and Annapolis, Joppa declined as a port, and was slowly abandoned. By 1815 all the remained were ruins and the surviving Rumsey Mansion. In 1962, Joppatowne, one of the first of a new generation of Planned Unit Developments (PUD) in the United States, was launched by the Panitz Company.