The champions are in dire financial straits, the epicentre of takeover bids and general confusion.
This leads to all sorts of mischief that shields companies from takeover bids, which might benefit minority shareholders.
Widely held companies are more vulnerable to hostile takeover bids a spur to managers and a boon for shareholders.
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Last year companies started to position themselves for a genuine single market through a series of takeover bids.
Davis stayed in the limelight with dozens of takeover bids for the likes of CBS, United Airlines and Vivendi Universal.
In 2006 half the takeover bids were from other REITs or real estate companies, half from the private equity gang.
Many retailers became "highly leveraged" - taking on big debts to keep trading, thus exposing them to takeover bids by rivals.
It has been slow to restructure, partly because a large shareholding by the Bavarian state shields it from unwanted takeover bids.
Like Ralcorp, AboveNet had previously received takeover bids it rejected as inadequate.
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Football At home, Le Arsenal did the Double, while the shape of the game began to change with takeover bids from City giants.
Elan has recently received takeover bids from Royalty Pharma, a private, New York-based company that buys royalty interests in drugs and late-stage drug candidates.
Saab's main union, IF Metal, is already annoyed at GM for doing two things at once: winding down the automaker while picking through takeover bids.
Expect the company to attract its own takeover bids, perhaps from Verizon, which needs to bulk up to take on its now significantly larger rival.
They first caught on in the 1980s, when boards used them to deter hostile takeover bids hostile, at least, to the board, though not necessarily to shareholders.
However, despite the market's recent surge, it is noticeable that two big-company stocks have recently attracted takeover bids at significant premiums to their stock prices: H.
In Astellas's case, the OSI deal also shows a new sophistication by corporate Japan in handling hostile takeover bids, a rarity among Japanese firms (though the deal ended happily enough when OSI's board accepted the offer).
If you own stock in a company that is the object of one or more hostile takeover bids it could mean that it is viewed as financially weak and a good "buying" opportunity for a larger entity.
However this flexibility also gives Colgate more options to defend itself, for example by raising debt to pursue non-strategic acquisitions in an attempt to avoid takeover bids and lever up its balance sheet to make it less attractive.
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The identities of potential saviours remain secret, although BBC Sport understands Leicester chairman Milan Mandaric is involved with one of the bids despite a statement distancing himself from a takeover last week.
Bids are being solicited and the possibility of a Riggio family-led takeover may lead to yet another battle between the company and outside activist shareholders.
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Ralcorp, you might recall, rejected without negotiation unsolicited bids from ConAgra ( CAG) and adopted several measures to make further takeover attempts less likely.
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Gerhard Schrder, the German chancellor, recently intervened in the takeover battle between the U.K.'s Vodafone Air-Touch and Mannesmann, declaring that hostile bids would destroy "the culture" of the German target company.
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