What connects poison pill, Pac-Man, & crown jewels? | #119
Also, the legend of ACP Pradyuman ➡️
Hello friends,
This past week, NDTV experienced what is considered a hostile takeover - a significant portion of the company has been taken over without any discussions with the founders of the company or the board involved. This is sadly not uncommon in the business world. This week’s newsletter* looks at ways business avoid hostile takeovers.
*with extra GIFs
Things we learnt this week 🤓
Poison Pill - This is the approach where a company that is about to be taken over dilutes its shares so much that the acquirer has to pay significantly more in order to take over. Twitter’s board agreed to the Poison Pill strategy when Muskji tried to use a tweet to take over Twitter. The Pill has Elongated the legal troubles for Musk.
White Knight - An enemy’s enemy is a best friend. So if you cannot avoid a hostile takeover, you get a friendly company to take over you instead. Nissin, the cup noodle makers, helped a smaller rival Myojo foods from being taken over by an American hedge fund. Just as in life - variations exist such as black knight, grey knight, yellow knight etc. There are Sir Tainly a lot of knights to help you avoid hostile takeovers.
Crown Jewels - Getting rid of your crown jewels is considered a valid strategy to avoid takeovers. Chopping off your most valuable asset will make you very unattractive for potential bidders. Taro, an Israeli pharmaceutical company, was being taken over by Sun Pharma. Taro, sold off its Irish arm making it unattractive for Sun Pharma to take over. They definitely read the Taro cards.
Pac-Man - We have all played Pac-man where Pac-man is chased endlessly by ghosts, but after eating a pellet, he is then able to devour ghosts himself. This strategy plays out when you can launch a bid to take over the company that is trying to take you over. Porsche tried to take over Volkswagen and got nearly bankrupt, before Volkswagen devoured Porsche. Reminds us of this classic ad
From IWTK, with love 💌
Ever wondered why the character was called Pradyuman? Well we have the answer.
The largest collection of Indian films is located in…. Rochester? We tell you more here.
The world's LARGEST collection of contemporary Indian films is located in a small city of Rochester, New York. 🤯🤯 The George Eastman Museum @EastmanMuseum (yes, of Eastman Colour fame) has 774 prints of 597 film titles in 35mm format made between 1999 and 2013. A short 🧵
Only In India 🇮🇳
We have no words to describe this.
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Stay hydrated,
❤️ IWTK