How does a hostile takeover work.

March 31, 2009 2:43pm CST
I want to know the setup(What needs to be done prior to the HT), Proccess(What you do in order to perform a HT), Accessories(Any needed to perform a HT : Money,Social Connection,files), and How(Explain, in detail, why a company can be the victim HT) I would also like some sort of source, so that I know what you say isn't a random thought.
2 responses
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
31 Mar 09
The hostile takeover of a public company involves an outside party obtaining a majority of the shares, which gives them the power to vote out the existing officers and put their own people in place. An example of this is United States Sugar Corporation in Florida. I don't know the current status of this situation but I read in the Palm Beach Post not too long ago that a competitor was in the process of buying up shares from shareholders in an attempt to take over Sugar before they can complete the sale of the company to the state of Florida. My brother-in-law, who is retired from Sugar and who owns over 400 shares of stock, received an offer but he wasn't interested in selling since he stands to get a lot more when the state buys Sugar and they pay off all of the shareholders.
31 Mar 09
So you would need an in source at the company you plan to take as well as a lot of money to buy a majority of shares from said in sources. I will explain the what i got out of your explanation. A Hostile Take over is when a person with a lot of money pays people to buy shares from a Public Company from people with no loyalty towards the company getting the majority of the share over all other share holders. Then you use you shares to vote out all potential threats making you the new owner over said company?
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
1 Apr 09
You would need a lot of money, yes, but I believe shareholder information is a matter of public record...although I could be wrong. It's usually not an individual who stages a hostile takeover but another company. There are many reasons why this could happen. Sometimes a company has expressed an interest in selling and there are several companies competing against each other, driving up the price, or the company is in trouble financially. In the case of U.S. Sugar there's no reason for the shareholders to be loyal to the company because the company has not been loyal to the shareholders or to the employees and the community. They've been trying to sell the company for a couple of years. Not a big deal as long as people continue to have jobs. Last year the state of Florida offered the Board 1.75 billion...now down to 1.3 billion...for it's entire operation, including over 180,000 acres of sugar cane fields, thousands of acres of citrus groves, a mill and refinery worth over 1.5 million and a short line railroad. Sugar agreed but this deal has left the employees and the surrounding community in a state of limbo because the state's intention is to flood many of those cane fields for an Everglades restoration project. Other land will be leased for a limited period of time and then ??????? Meanwhile, Sugar has continued to shop for other, better deals. So, several months ago one of the interested parties started aquiring large blocks of stock from certain shareholders. If they are able to purchase enough stock, they will control the company and all other deals are off but Sugar initiated a plan which would double the number of shares held by the remaining shareholders, making it more difficult for this company to gain a controlling interest in the company. I don't own any shares so I have no stake in this and my brother-in-law is just riding it out.
1 Apr 09
By loyalty I would mean the workers of a more private company such as a casino or Last Name titled businesses.
@wakinsey (141)
• United States
2 Apr 09
Hostile takeovers require a lot of money or capital. The merger between AT&T and BellSouth can also be viewed as a hostile takeover. This is because AT&T bought all of BellSouth's shares in order to gain control of BellSouth and Cingular wireless.