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.
Great Falls is a city in and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 56,690 at the 2000 census. It is the principal city of the 'Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area', which encompasses all of Cascade County. Great Falls takes its name from the series of five waterfalls that the Lewis and Clark Expedition had to portage around over a ten mile stretch, requiring 31 days of arduous labor, in their 1805-06 exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. Two undeveloped parts of their portage route are included within the Great Falls Portage, a National Historic Landmark. The city is home to the C. M. Russell Museum Complex, the University of Great Falls, Giant Springs, the Roe River (world's shortest river), and the Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind, as well as the Great Falls Voyagers minor league baseball (formerly known as the Great Falls White Sox) team. The local newspaper is the Great Falls Tribune. Great Falls is known as the "Electric City" due to the five hydroelectric dams that are in the nearby vicinity along the Missouri River. A Coldwell Banker Home Price Comparison Index listed Great Falls as the most affordable area of 348 markets in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico.