The legislature finds that:

(1) Corporations that offer employment and health, retirement, and other benefits to citizens of the state of Washington are vital to the economy of this state and the well-being of all of its citizens;

(2) The welfare of the employees of these corporations is of paramount interest and concern to this state;

(3) Many businesses in this state rely on these corporations to purchase goods and services;

(4) Hostile or unfriendly attempts to gain control of or influence otherwise publicly held corporations can cause corporate management to dissipate a corporation‘s assets in an effort to resist the takeover by selling or distributing cash or assets, redeeming stock, or taking other steps to increase the short-term gain to shareholders and to dissipate energies required for strategic planning, market development, capital investment decisions, assessment of technologies, and evaluation of competitive challenges that can damage the long-term interests of shareholders and the economic health of the state by reducing or eliminating the ability to finance investments in research and development, new products, facilities and equipment, and by undermining the planning process for those purposes;

(5) Hostile or unfriendly attempts to gain control or influence otherwise publicly held corporations are often highly leveraged pursuant to financing arrangements which assume that an acquirer will promptly obtain access to an acquired corporation’s cash or assets and use them, or the proceeds of their sale, to repay acquisition indebtedness;

(6) Hostile or unfriendly attempts to gain control of or influence otherwise publicly held corporations can harm the economy of the state by weakening corporate performance, and causing unemployment, plant closings, reduced charitable donations, declining population base, reduced income to fee-supported local government services, reduced tax base, and reduced income to other businesses; and

(7) The state has a substantial and legitimate interest in regulating domestic corporations and those foreign corporations that have their most significant business contacts with this state and in regulating hostile or unfriendly attempts to gain control of or influence otherwise publicly held domestic corporations and those foreign corporations that employ a large number of citizens of the state, pay significant taxes, and have a substantial economic base in the state.

The legislature intends this chapter to balance the substantial and legitimate interests of the state in domestic corporations and those foreign corporations that employ a large number of citizens of the state and that have a substantial economic base in the state with: The interests of citizens of other states who own shares of such corporations; the interests of the state of incorporation of such foreign corporations in regulating the internal affairs of corporations incorporated in that state; and the interests of promoting interstate commerce. To this effect, the legislature intends to regulate certain transactions between publicly held corporations and acquiring persons that will tend to harm the long-term health of domestic corporations and of foreign corporations that have their principal executive office and a majority of their assets in this state and that employ a large number of citizens of this state.