Toyota Founding Family Is Biggest Winner in Unit Takeover Battle

For Akio Toyoda, the all-but-certain mega buyout of Toyota Industries Corp. is the ultimate legacy play. It will reshape Japan’s biggest business group, tighten his family’s grip over the Toyota organization and end a protracted standoff with an American shareholder activist that tested Japan Inc.’s embrace of corporate governance reform.

In what may be the largest-ever Japanese buyout deal, the century-old maker of textile looms that spawned the world’s largest carmaker is poised to become part of a new power center after an unprecedented battle with Elliott Investment Management, one of the world’s most aggressive activist funds.