Īs of 2018, about 1,788 hostile takeovers with a total value of US$28.86B have been announced.

Ī well-known example of an extremely hostile takeover was Oracle's bid to acquire PeopleSoft. Under Delaware law, boards must engage in defensive actions that are proportional to the hostile bidder's threat to the target company. Since takeovers often require loans provided by banks in order to service the offer, banks are often less willing to back a hostile bidder because of the relative lack of target information which is available to them. In contrast, a hostile bidder will only have more limited, publicly available information about the target company available, rendering the bidder vulnerable to hidden risks regarding the target company's finances. If the board of the target cooperates, the bidder can conduct extensive due diligence into the affairs of the target company, providing the bidder with a comprehensive analysis of the target company's finances. The main consequence of a bid being considered hostile is practical rather than legal. In the United States, a common defense tactic against hostile takeovers is to use section 16 of the Clayton Act to seek an injunction, arguing that section 7 of the act would be violated if the offeror acquired the target's stock. In all of these ways, management resists the acquisition, but it is carried out anyway. Another method involves quietly purchasing enough stock on the open market, known as a creeping tender offer, to effect a change in management. An acquiring company can also engage in a proxy fight, whereby it tries to persuade enough shareholders, usually a simple majority, to replace the management with a new one which will approve the takeover. A tender offer can be made where the acquiring company makes a public offer at a fixed price above the current market price. Ī hostile takeover can be conducted in several ways. Development of the hostile tender is attributed to Louis Wolfson. A takeover is considered hostile if the target company's board rejects the offer, and if the bidder continues to pursue it, or the bidder makes the offer directly after having announced its firm intention to make an offer.

A hostile takeover allows a bidder to take over a target company whose management is unwilling to agree to a merger or takeover.

The takeover