DEFINITIONS.

(a) In this subchapter:

(1) "Compensation experience" includes the period that benefit wage credits or benefits have been chargeable and any other factor under Subchapter A, B, C, or D necessary to the computation of experience rating under those subchapters.

(2) "Person" means an individual, trust, estate, partnership, association, company, or corporation.

(3) "Substantially common management or control" exists if, after the acquisition of the organization, trade, or business of an employing unit, the predecessor employing unit continues to:

(A) own or manage the organization that conducts the organization, trade, or business;

(B) own or manage the assets necessary to conduct the organization, trade, or business;

(C) control through security or lease arrangements the assets necessary to conduct the organization, trade, or business; or

(D) direct the internal affairs or conduct of the organization, trade, or business.

(4) "Substantially common ownership" exists if, on the date of an acquisition of the organization, trade, or business of an employing unit, a shareholder, officer, or other owner of a legal or equitable interest in the predecessor employing unit, or the spouse or a person within the first degree of consanguinity or affinity, as determined under Chapter 573, Government Code, of the shareholder, officer, or other owner:

(A) is a shareholder, officer, or other owner of a legal or equitable interest in the successor employing unit; or

(B) holds an option to purchase a legal or equitable interest in the successor employing unit.

(5) "Transfer of trade or business" includes the transfer of part or all of an employer's workforce to another employer if, as the result of the transfer, the transferring employer no longer performs trade or business with respect to the transferred workforce and the employer to whom the workforce is transferred performs trade or business with respect to the workforce.

(6) "Knowingly" means having actual knowledge of or acting with deliberate ignorance of or reckless disregard for the prohibition involved.

(b) For purposes of Subsection (a)(4), following a partial acquisition of an organization, trade, or business of an employing unit, substantially common ownership does not exist solely because the predecessor employing unit has the right to repossess the part acquired by the successor employing unit in the event of the successor's failure to complete a condition of the acquisition.