RSS
help
Categories: Stocks
What happens to a company’s stock if they are bought out?
In the news today Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 billion. If you had shares of Yahoo what would happen to those. Also if this happens will this positively affect Microsoft’s stock?
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_microsoft_yahoo_summary_box.html
JPMorgan Chase buys troubled Washington Mutual(WaMu)
Wells Fargo Trumps Citigroup’s Offer to Buy Wachovia
Popularity: 100% [?]
What do you recommend? Leave an answer below.
Give us your advice: Check our recent questions.
See Also:
Digg
Reddit
I see that you have not yet registered. Why not? It's free. Plus when you sign up you are allowed to post questions and receive feedback and answers. Thanks for reading anyway. Come back soon!
sergik12
at 10:41am on Feb 4, 2008
If you had shares of YHOO you would get the offer price for your shares. In this case you would make a significant premium on your shares. However if you take a closer look you will only get a 15% premium from the 52 week high.
If you own shares of MSFT then the original acquisition is bad news for you because the price per share will go down. In most cases the acquirers shares go down in value unless the market thinks it’s a good investment. There are a lot of negatives to acquisitions especially of big firms….. in this case time will tell.
RomVay83
at 03:52pm on Feb 16, 2008
This is not an exact science and exceptions do happen, however, the general rule of thumb is the acquiring company’s stock price falls, while the acquired company’s stock price rises. You can dedicate a text book to the methodology behind this but here is the skinny:
When a company is acquired, the general public view is positive. And why not? The acquired company now has a far-greater pool of resources such as funding, expertise, etc. If the company was not doing so well, the acquisition will most likely mean a complete reorganization of management and other company processes (think of it as a makeover). All of this points to greener grass and a better bottom line in the future.
On the other hand, the acquiring company just spent a large sum of its cash on the purchase. In many cases, companies will borrow and use other means of generating the funds needed to make the purchase. This would have made significant changes to many key ratios. Furthermore, the company now has a major task ahead of it. In many cases there are significant overlaps in personnel and layoffs must be made, which are magnets for lawsuits. Further integration of systems and personnel must be made. All of these are expensive steps to take. Also, do not forget the acquiring company inherits any liabilities the purchased company may have.
The last thing to note is that there is method to what may seem as madness behind all acquisitions. The acquiring company has done its analysis of the purchase and may believe that the benefits outweigh (or will eventually outweigh) any negatives. While its stock price may take an immediate hit, it will climb back up and beyond in the long run if all works out as planned. Whether that happens or not is always debatable.
vadim.vintsevsky
at 03:50pm on Mar 6, 2008
i feel tha this acquistion will be great for both microsoft and yahoo. Yahoo who before would not be able to compete with the powerhouse that is good, now has the resources to do so. And microsoft now is going into googles game, which has a ton of money in it. Also I feel that microsofts shares would not go down to much if they do end up aquiring because they are using their obscene amount of cash. Mircosoft has always just had a ton of cash doing nothing, since they are just using that to get yahoo, not releasing debt, it is a great investment. However yahoo is trying to fight it with all their might so who know if it will ever go through.