Takeover

In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the target) by another (the acquirer, or bidder). In UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to the acquisition of a private company.

Types of takeover

Friendly takeovers

A "friendly takeover" is an acquisition which is approved by the management. Before a bidder makes an offer for another company, it usually first informs the company's board of directors. In an ideal world, if the board feels that accepting the offer serves the shareholders better than rejecting it, it recommends the offer be accepted by the shareholders.

In a private company, because the shareholders and the board are usually the same people or closely connected with one another, private acquisitions are usually friendly. If the shareholders agree to sell the company, then the board is usually of the same mind or sufficiently under the orders of the equity shareholders to cooperate with the bidder. This point is not relevant to the UK concept of takeovers, which always involve the acquisition of a public company.

Hostile Takeover Trilogy

Hostile Takeover is a science fiction trilogy (actually one long novel in three parts) written by S. Andrew Swann and published by DAW Books where the main setting is the Anarcho-capitalist planet of Bakunin. It consists of three books titled Profiteer, Partisan and Revolutionary, which were published between 1995 and 1996 and re-released by DAW in a single volume in 2004.

The series is set in the 24th Century, in the same universe as Swann's Moreau series. In this future, the various races of earth—human, "moreau", and "frank" (genetically engineered human, short for "Frankenstein")—have settled a number of worlds and established a loose confederacy of powers. The extraterrestrials that manipulated Earth's politics and economy in the Moreau series have been quarantined, but their AI machines (which may still be manipulating human society) are now used by humans.

While Hostile Takeover is an example of libertarian science fiction in the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein and L. Neil Smith, its portrayal of society on the planet Bakunin is arguably much more critical of the basic premise of anarchism than is typical of the genre, coming close to a libertarian dystopia. By casting a machiavellian space opera plot against this setting, the author plays out many of the potential criticisms inherent in the planet Bakunin's social order. The two main premises being:

Joe Black

Joseph Black (February 8, 1924 – May 17, 2002) was an American right-handed pitcher in Negro League and Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cincinnati Redlegs, and Washington Senators who became the first black pitcher to win a World Series game, in 1952. Black died of prostate cancer at age 78.

A native of Plainfield, New Jersey, he starred at Plainfield High School. Black attended on a baseball scholarship and graduated from Morgan State University in 1950 and later received an honorary doctorate from Shaw University. He was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He appears prominently in Roger Kahn's classic book, The Boys of Summer.

Negro and minor leagues

Black helped the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro Leagues win two championships in seven years. He and Jackie Robinson pushed for a pension plan for Negro League players and was instrumental in the inclusion of players who played before 1944 Black then played for a year in the Brooklyn Dodgers' minor league system.

Meet Joe Black

Meet Joe Black is a 1998 American fantasy romance film produced by Universal Studios, directed by Martin Brest and starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins and Claire Forlani, loosely based on the 1934 film Death Takes a Holiday. It was the second pairing of Hopkins and Pitt after their 1994 film Legends of the Fall.

Plot

Billionaire media mogul William "Bill" Parrish is considering a merger between his company and another media giant, while also about to celebrate his 65th birthday with an elaborate party being planned by his eldest daughter Allison. He begins to hear mysterious voices, which he tries with increasing difficulty to ignore. His youngest daughter Susan, an internal medicine resident, is involved with one of Bill's board members, Drew. She is considering marriage, but her father can tell she's not passionately in love. When she asks for the short version of his impassioned speech, he simply says, "Stay open. Who knows? Lightning could strike!"

Susan meets a vibrant young man at a coffee shop. She is instantly enamored but fails to even get his name. Minutes after their encounter (but unbeknownst to her), the man is struck by multiple cars in what appears to be a fatal motor vehicle accident. Death arrives at Bill's home in the body of the young man, explaining that Bill's impassioned speech has piqued his interest. Given Bill's "competence, experience, and wisdom," Death says that for as long as Bill will be his guide on Earth, he will not have to die. Making up a name on the spot, Death is introduced to the family as "Joe Black."