26th September 2006, 5:31 PM
Quote:What is it about being in the stock market that prevents someone from refusing offers to buy them out? Is there some legal thing I'm not aware of?
Any stockholder can sell their stock to anyone who wants to buy it. Buyouts can be stopped in one of two ways; either get together a majority of stockholders who don't want to sell or keep a majority of stock within the company [say, with the board of directors or the President/CEO].
If a majority of stock is held by people who have no vested interest in the company [i.e. stock traders] then there's nothing really to stop another company from purchasing a controlling share. They just have to through around enough money to convince people that selling will result in a higher yeild than holding on to their stock.
It's really that simple.
Sometimes you get the scorpion.