A White Knight who... got a little too nervous before the battle? Eih, maybe not. In the world of mergers, there are a bunch of different knights with different colors. It’s like the wild wild west, medieval style. You can think of the “yellow knight” as a foe turned friend (well, sort of).
A yellow knight is when one company tries to hostilely take over another company, but then says “jk...how about a merger?”
Black knights are the ones who try for hostile takeovers, and they turn yellow once they back out and and suggest a mutual marriage.
What makes black knights turn yellow? They could be backing out because it turns out the takeover is too expensive, or the company they are trying to take over has some anti-takeover tricks up their sleeves.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is a Pac Man Defense?21 Views
Finance a la shmoop what is a pacman defense?
[Pacman eating] yeah well wacka wacka to you too...Hostile takeovers are rare in real life not so
rare in pac-man but when they do happen there exists a whole cadre of strategies
behind defending them at least from the company's perspective being taken over
there and pac-man defense is inarguably the best named strategy of all of
them in essence what happens when we'll say an angry competitor let's call him
blinky Inc tries to buy an angrier competitor let's call them inky inc.
well blinky would be buying shares of inky in the open marketplace filing to [Blinky and inky appear]
go past 15% ownership and eventually own enough shares to elect its own Board of
Directors and make a takeover happen well in a Pac Man defense as blinky is
snarfing up shares of inky, inky buys shares of blinky sort of turning the
tables you know like this and while you're gobbling up that competition and [Pacman gobbling competition]
don't forget to eat a bunch of cherries or a strawberry every once in a while
because you know you still need your fruits and veggies
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