Flip-Over Pill

Our little tech media company, Yay for Games, LLC, is making money hand over fist. “Blastocyst Blast,” the match-three game we created, is taking the world by storm. It’s gonna be bigger than “Candy Crush” and we, the developers, are reaping big financial rewards. Life is good.

But on the horizon, Tech Giant, Inc. lurks, waiting for the perfect moment to acquire our company and absorb us into its own organizational folds. They’ve already made noise about a hostile takeover if we refuse to let them buy us out in a friendly manner.

Luckily for us, we have a flip-over poison pill provision (also just called a flip-over pill, because brevity is cool) in our company’s bylaws, which should make it easier for us to resist their unwanted financial advances. A flip-over pill basically says that, if a takeover is successful, the shareholders of the acquired firm (Yay for Games) can buy shares in the acquiring firm (Tech Giant) at a deep discount. The point of including this provision is to dissuade any would-be hostile acquirers to rethink their plan, since it could end up causing their stock price to drop so much that the takeover wouldn’t be worth it. Either that, or it would force them to negotiate with Yay for Games to find a solution that was more mutually beneficial.

Something important to keep in mind: even if a negotiated acquisition price is reached, the flip-over poison pill must still be swallowed, so to speak. As soon as Tech Giant makes its takeover bid for Yay for Games, the pill plan kicks in, and shareholders have a predetermined amount of time to go get those shares and try to prevent the acquisition.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is a poison pill?4 Views

00:00

Finance allah shmoop what is a poison pill O romeo

00:08

romeo Wherefore out the ac Well if you can't have

00:12

me nobody can have me pill lug dead dead alright

00:17

that's poison pill allah romeo and juliet and performed by

00:20

your friends here and the corporate version Well it isn't

00:23

all that different In fact there are really two flavors

00:25

of poison pill flintstones chewable lt's called flip ins which

00:29

allow current shareholders to buy a ton more shares at

00:33

a big discount toe where their shares are currently trading

00:36

flippen like if the shares are at forty bucks each

00:39

current shareholder than gets allowed to buy five shares for

00:42

ten bucks each for each share that they currently own

00:45

and have owned for the last in a year About

00:48

that would be a flipping well this flip in process

00:51

dilutes the company dramatically making it harder for an outside

00:55

takeover soldier to come in and you know just buy

00:57

the company that's a flip in the non chewable flintstone

01:01

flavor that you have to actually swallow is called ah

01:03

flip over which comes is a mandate from the board

01:07

allowing current shareholders to buy the shares of the acquirer

01:11

After the merger at a big discount it basically destroys

01:14

enormous value in the combined company making It tastes like

01:17

a bitter moth to ah hungry bat so you know

01:21

he spits it out The basic idea in these poison

01:23

pill defense strategies is to deal with hostile takeovers And

01:28

a lot of those came during the junk bond era

01:30

in the nineteen eighties when cheap high risk capital was

01:33

liquid Lee easily available almost anywhere and companies felt vulnerable

01:39

to short term quick buck wall street sharpies who looked

01:42

great in a dark suit and usually had awesome hair

01:45

So yeah people for details carefully watch wall street the

01:48

first one the good one the one with michael douglas

01:51

when he still had hair and what you don't really 00:01:54.212 --> [endTime] hear there is he said Shmoop is good yeah

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)