HONG KONG – The recent M&A deal between Japan's 237-year-old Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Irish firm Shire plc has attracted massive attention, not just because of the mammoth size of the deal but also the tug of war among the Japanese company's shareholders, a group of which made a failed attempt to block the deal during Takeda's general meeting earlier this year. (See BioWorld, May 8, 2018.)