Pac-Man defense

The deal is the first time in years that the so-called Pac-Man defense has been used successfully.

The term Pac-Man defense is a reference to a computer game where attackers can become the attacked.

He was credited with the term "Pac-Man defense", which is used by targeted companies during a hostile takeover attempt.

This approach - of a target turning on the would-be acquirer - has come to be known as the "Pac-Man defense."

The Pac-Man defense involves a takeover target's acquiring a raider before the raider can buy the target.

One is the Nancy Reagan defense and the other is the Pac-Man defense, right?

If Burlington does try to swallow its attacker, it would be using a tactic known on Wall Street as the "Pac-man defense."

It enriched our vocabulary with a new takeover lexicon: greenmail, poison pills, white knights, golden parachutes, Pac-man defenses.

He created the Pac-Man defense in 1982, by bidding for Bendix Corporation, the very company that was trying to take over Martin Marietta.

In 2009, Cadbury plc considered trying a Pac-Man defense if no bid emerged to challenge Kraft Foods' hostile offer.

In 1984, Securities Exchange Commission commissioners said that the Pac-Man defense was cause for "serious concern," but balked at endorsing any federal prohibition against the tactic.

Examples of strategy implementation by third parties are poison pills, people pills, white knights, white squires, Pac-Man defense, lobster traps, sandbagging, whitemail, and greenmail.

American Brands' offer for E-II is the first time a strategy known as the Pac-Man defense has been used since the Martin Marietta-Bendix takeover fight in 1982.

However, Martin Marietta's management used the short time between ownership and control to sell non-core businesses and launch its own hostile takeover of Bendix - the Pac-Man Defense.

"They instituted a Pac-Man defense against Bendix," Mr. Wyser-Pratte said yesterday, recalling how Martin Marietta responded with a bid to acquire Bendix.

American Brands' Pac-Man defense, in which a pursued company makes a bid for its pursuer, has not been tried since Martin Marietta used it in its 1982 battle with Bendix.

The next Pac-Man defense occurred in 1988, when American Brands, fighting a hostile takeover attempt by E-II Holdings, announced a cash tender offer for E-II.

Citgo responded by offering to buy Mesa, which was the first use of what became known as the "Pac-Man defense" take-over defense; i.e., a counter-tender offer initiated by a takeover target.

Though Elf began a so-called Pac-Man defense - a counteroffer to take over Total for about $52 billion worth of Elf stock - institutional investors strongly preferred Mr. Desmarest's deal.

The term Pac-Man defense in mergers and acquisitions refers to a hostile takeover target that attempts to reverse the situation and take over its would-be acquirer instead, a reference to Pac-Man's power pellets.

'Pac-Man' Defense Any involvement by Plessey, a rival of G.E.C., could indicate an attempt to employ an anti-takeover tactic that has come to be known as the "Pac-Man defense."

The Pac-Man defense is a defensive business strategy used to stave off a hostile takeover, in which a company that is threatened with a hostile takeover "turns the tables" by attempting to acquire its would-be buyer.

A report in Wall Street Journal last week, citing unnamed sources, said Rio was considering an array of potential options including a counter-bid, also called a Pac-Man defense, selling assets and other moves that could raise shareholder value.

The commissioners acknowledged a Pac-Man defense can benefit shareholders under certain circumstances, but emphasized that management, in resorting to this tactic, must bear the burden of proving it isn't acting solely out of its desire to stay in office.

MR. BROOKS argues that America lost its competitiveness in part "because while Japan had been producing goods, the United States had been producing raiders, greenmailers, arbitrageurs, poison pills, and Pac-man defenses."