Comment by paxys

> and indeed the acquisition price of a company is almost never exactly its “market valuation”

The acquisition price is almost always significantly more than its market value. The reason is that if you start buying shares on the open market each transaction of yours will raise the stock price, and eventually you will price yourself out of the purchase.

So what buyers do is negotiate directly with the board and propose an inflated price that >50% of shareholders are okay with.