Merger Definition

1) In corporate law, the joining together of two corporations in which one corporation transfers all of its assets to the other. In effect, one corporation "swallows" the other. The shareholders of the swallowed company receive shares of the surviving corporation. Distinguished from a "consolidation," in which both companies join together to create a new corporation. 2) In real property law, when an owner of an interest in property acquires a greater or lesser interest in the same property, the two interests become one. 3) In real property law, when a person acquires two parcels of land that had been previously subdivided and that are substandard size, the buyer who acquires title in the two lots may find that they are "merged" into one lot.