3 ms·

but would they even sell? why would they agree to sell the company? cool idea though

ghaff 10y ago
"They" (as in the majority of the shareholders holding voting shares) would probably have been more than willing for a sufficient premium over the share price. Unless insiders have majority control, hostile takeovers do happen. (Though they're less common than they were for a variety of reasons.)
pjc50 10y ago
Public listed companies have little choice about who they sell to. That's part of being public.
- valuearb 10y ago
  Publicly listed company management has less choice, but the company itself (i.e. the shareholders) has all the choice in the world. Management's preferences can carry lots of weight though. If Tim Cook supports an aquisition offer it's far more likely to pass than if he opposes it.
  - stale2002 10y ago
    There is no "passing" or "agreeing" in hostile takeovers. You just go to the new york stock exchange and start buying up the publicly traded stock.
    - pjc50 10y ago
      Well, sort of: once over a control threshold the takeover process gets complicated and the shareholders do have some rights of refusal. https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/21255/how-do-public-company-buyouts-work https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/21255/how-do-publi...
    - valuearb 10y ago
      It's insanely hard to buy 51% of a public company on the public markets. It's almost never been done. What almost always happens is the buyer makes a tender offer at substantially above the current trading price, then pushes for a shareholder vote. In the case of Apple, it's probably a bid of near $180 a share, or $900B. Then Tim Cook goes out to institutional investors who own big chunks of stock (maybe 1% at most) and lobbies them to vote against it. No bidder is going to be able to buy 51% of Apple in the open market in any reasonable length of time, by the time they get near 50% the price is over $400 a share. Look at Volkswagens chart from 2005 to 2008 when Porsche was buying shares for a takeover. It started at around 33 euros, and quickly went to 70 euros after a year, eventually hitting 200 euros when Porsche got to the 40% level, and briefly spiked over 1,000 euros just before Porsche quit and was forced to dump its shares.
      - stale2002 10y ago
        Wait, that's awesome though. That is a 4-8 X return on Porsche's investment. They came out WAY ahead. Good for them. If price is low, then buy. If price goes into the stratosphere then sell. Either you succeed and buy the company or you make billions on your investment.
        pjc50 10y ago
        At that quantity, you can't sell all the shares in one go. The value spike is transient and unwinding the purchase generally ends up losing money. Which is what happened and why Porsche is now a subsidiary of VW. http://www.automobilemag.com/news/porsche-and-volkswagen-what-happened/ http://www.automobilemag.com/news/porsche-and-volkswagen-wha... Also they were buying on credit (leveraged buyout), which blew the whole thing up badly. And a bunch of people tried shorting it without realising the limited liquidity of VW, and got squeezed badly: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-idUSTRE49R3I920081028 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-idUSTRE49R3I920...

ghaff 10y ago

"They" (as in the majority of the shareholders holding voting shares) would probably have been more than willing for a sufficient premium over the share price. Unless insiders have majority control, hostile takeovers do happen. (Though they're less common than they were for a variety of reasons.)

pjc50 10y ago

Public listed companies have little choice about who they sell to. That's part of being public.

valuearb 10y ago
Publicly listed company management has less choice, but the company itself (i.e. the shareholders) has all the choice in the world. Management's preferences can carry lots of weight though. If Tim Cook supports an aquisition offer it's far more likely to pass than if he opposes it.
- stale2002 10y ago
  There is no "passing" or "agreeing" in hostile takeovers. You just go to the new york stock exchange and start buying up the publicly traded stock.
  - pjc50 10y ago
    Well, sort of: once over a control threshold the takeover process gets complicated and the shareholders do have some rights of refusal. https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/21255/how-do-public-company-buyouts-work https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/21255/how-do-publi...
  - valuearb 10y ago
    It's insanely hard to buy 51% of a public company on the public markets. It's almost never been done. What almost always happens is the buyer makes a tender offer at substantially above the current trading price, then pushes for a shareholder vote. In the case of Apple, it's probably a bid of near $180 a share, or $900B. Then Tim Cook goes out to institutional investors who own big chunks of stock (maybe 1% at most) and lobbies them to vote against it. No bidder is going to be able to buy 51% of Apple in the open market in any reasonable length of time, by the time they get near 50% the price is over $400 a share. Look at Volkswagens chart from 2005 to 2008 when Porsche was buying shares for a takeover. It started at around 33 euros, and quickly went to 70 euros after a year, eventually hitting 200 euros when Porsche got to the 40% level, and briefly spiked over 1,000 euros just before Porsche quit and was forced to dump its shares.
    - stale2002 10y ago
      Wait, that's awesome though. That is a 4-8 X return on Porsche's investment. They came out WAY ahead. Good for them. If price is low, then buy. If price goes into the stratosphere then sell. Either you succeed and buy the company or you make billions on your investment.
      - pjc50 10y ago
        At that quantity, you can't sell all the shares in one go. The value spike is transient and unwinding the purchase generally ends up losing money. Which is what happened and why Porsche is now a subsidiary of VW. http://www.automobilemag.com/news/porsche-and-volkswagen-what-happened/ http://www.automobilemag.com/news/porsche-and-volkswagen-wha... Also they were buying on credit (leveraged buyout), which blew the whole thing up badly. And a bunch of people tried shorting it without realising the limited liquidity of VW, and got squeezed badly: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-idUSTRE49R3I920081028 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-idUSTRE49R3I920...