I think we have to tolerate a certain amount of irrationality from shareholders.
If you bought a $100k home which then dipped to $80k during Covid, would you accept an unsolicited bid of $90k?
It's reasonable for some people to take the bid, since you could arguably buy another comparable house for $80k and pocket the $10k difference, but I think a lot of other people would reasonably choose not to.
(I'm not totally sure if this logic scales to board rooms / billions of dollars, but curious to hear thoughts.)
I don't think the logical disconnect here is about whether it scales to billions of dollars. The problem is that people live in their homes and there are many frictional costs associated with moving. You need to pick something much more fungible.
I own several stocks that have dropped in the last few months. If someone offered me a 20% premium to sell them today, I would do so in a heartbeat. I would even do so if it meant the company would go private and I couldn't buy that stock again.
If you bought a $100k home which then dipped to $80k during Covid, would you accept an unsolicited bid of $90k?
It's reasonable for some people to take the bid, since you could arguably buy another comparable house for $80k and pocket the $10k difference, but I think a lot of other people would reasonably choose not to.
(I'm not totally sure if this logic scales to board rooms / billions of dollars, but curious to hear thoughts.)