Talk about cautionary tale. I found the coporrate TO of...

Talk about cautionary tale. I found the coporrate TO of memtec.

https://www.aicd.com.au/board-of-directors/duties/insolvency/tales-from-the-corporate-battlefield-the-memtec-story.html

I can't say I was awakened by a call at 7am. In those days I used to get up a little earlier - but I wasn't quite ready to receive it. I was in the bathroom and that probably was a reasonable portent of what was to come. I wasn't in the shower either. So having composed myself, the call was from one of our principal bankers, Oppenheimer in the US to say that US Filter had announced a hostile takeover of Memtec at the close of Wall Street. Our shares at the time were trading at about $US23. The offer was $US32. This gives you a bit of a sinking feeling, as it means they were pretty serious. At 7.05 I started getting calls from staff asking what's going on. The staff expressed a great deal of loyalty. The company culture and camaraderie was very deep, so girding the loins was the initial reaction. And we got ready to see what we could do about this interloper - a $US6 billion interloper. The offer price was $US32 per share - about $540 million in total. We had the honour of being the largest takeover offer that week on Wall Street. So we actually got into a few papers. It was a measly price earnings ratio of 44 times historic earnings.