Buyouts essentially come in two forms; 1. Friendly/solicited or...

Buyouts essentially come in two forms; 1. Friendly/solicited or 2. Unsolicited/not necessarily friendly.

Ultimately they both work the same way in that a buyer needs to acquire (I believe) 90% of listed shares in order to "compulsarily acquire" the company and any shareholders left refusing to sell are forced to accept a bid if the bidder gets acceptance for 90% of stock.

So... To assess how a bid for ARL might play out, you need to be familiar with the top 20 holders and understand what type of investors/holders they are. Who in the top 20 are the real long term investors with big ideas about the future?

It only takes one individual or entity holding 10% or more of a company to effectively block an unsolicited T/O bid. Usually the board combined will hold more than 10% so it can often be important for the board to be unified (and agree) on whether or not to accept a bid.

I personally don't know the structure of the top 20, who (if anyone) holds more than 10% nor the combined holdings of the board. This would be a good thing for you to research if you are concerned about unsolicited bids for ARL.