Webster Shareholders Approve $12 Billion Santander Takeover Deal

Deal approved

Webster Financial Corp. shareholders have accepted Banco Santander SA’s $12 billion takeover proposal, according to Bloomberg’s report on the extraordinary shareholder meeting held Tuesday. That approval removes one of the last major obstacles standing in the way of the acquisition.

Webster said, according to an audio transcript from the meeting, that the transaction proposal had been approved and that detailed results would be released later. Santander also responded positively through a spokesperson, who welcomed the decision.

The article does not provide a full breakdown of the vote, the transaction terms beyond the headline value, or a closing timeline. What it does make clear is that the shareholder vote was a critical step in moving the transaction forward. In deal-making, shareholder approval is often a key checkpoint because it shows investors are willing to support the strategic and financial logic of the transaction.

For banking markets, this is a notable event because Santander is pursuing a large U.S. bank acquisition, and Webster’s approval suggests the deal has cleared a major governance hurdle. Bloomberg frames the vote as one of the last remaining barriers, which implies the transaction had already advanced through earlier stages before this shareholder decision.

The report is narrow in scope, but the finance significance is straightforward: a large bank acquisition got materially closer to completion after investor approval.