To buy an entire company, you always need to pay a premium over the current market cap. The market price is lower than any existing shareholder is willing to se

To buy an entire company, you always need to pay a premium over the current market cap. The market price is lower than any existing shareholder is willing to sell for because if they were willing to sell for less than that price, they would have already sold it. For some of the shareholders, the lowest price they would be willing to sell for would be much higher than the market price.