Tardiness in spl, page-2

Purely hypothetical of course: But it seems to me that if a company was intent on paying several billion dollars to takeover another. It would make perfect sense to try to obtain as much of the outstanding share registry as possible from the open market before it became public knowledge. The difference between what they pay here and now compared to what they'll pay later would help to mitigate the final cost of the buyout. Their only regulatory concern would be the delayed reporting of holding more than 5% of the company? Obviously I'm no financial genius and all the above needs to be taken with a large pinch of salt, but hopefully someone will be along shortly to point out the errors of my thinking or confirm its an idea with possibilities?