A115　  A triangular merger occurs when, for example, an overseas company establishes a subsidiary in Japan and that subsidiary merges with or acquires a Japanese company that later becomes a subsidiary. The parent company can then use its own shares instead of cash as the consideration. If U.S. and European companies with high market valuations were to adopt this method, they could easily acquire Japanese companies with low valuations. For this reason, the business community aggressively lobbied the government, requesting a one-year postponement (until May 2007) of triangular mergers, so that companies could prepare strategies to counter hostile takeover bids.