BrettI've never worked in the field of finance and so forth but...

Brett

I've never worked in the field of finance and so forth but I have read a bit about it and even worked for a bank many years ago that was taken over which sparked a lot of my reading into it.

For stake / shareholders, takeovers can be great or messy. It all depends on what price is offered as a ratio to how much you paid for it.
Takeovers can be 'passive' where the acquirer approaches the target business and makes an offer. A vote goes to shareholders and the process begins. If shareholders reject the offer, a counterbid may be made.

There are also 'aggressive' takeovers where companies slowly buy up as much stock slowly getting to the target 51% required to be a majority shareholder then things can be nasty if shareholders aren't happy with the deal. Some of these go to court to battle it out.
In some cases, shares are compulsorily acquired where as a shareholder you just get 'taken out' regardless of the price.
Some takeovers are cash for shares and some are scrip for scrip (exchange shares at a certain ratio) or both cash / scrip.

Let me use BTR as an example, showing a less than favourable example:

Mr X buys shares at $0.30c some years back (now $3.00 post consolidation).
His shares are today, at this posting only worth $0.07c at that same price (now $0.70c).
Sum Ting Good Resources out of Shanghai makes a bid for BTR at $1.00 and the MAJORITY of shareholders approve and run for the door. The assets are handed over to Sum Ting Good Ltd and BTR is de-listed. Mr X fights vehemently against the sale and gets only $1.00 for his shares realising a loss of $2.00 per share. Mr Y has bought shares at $0.25c per share post consolidation and is obviously quite happy; he's made 4 times his original investment.

It really depends on the share price of the company at the time of the takeover and currency valuations etc.

The whole process is a great deal more complicated than that.