Take-Away Acquisition

Take-Away Acquisition

The acquisition of a company when the target firm already has another offer from a second potential acquirer. For example, when Company A buys Company B for $200 million when Company C had previously made an offer on Company B for $150 million, the purchase is called a take-away acquisition. A take-away acquisition carries the risk that the acquiring company rushes too quickly to finalize the transaction and will not do sufficient due diligence.

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take-away acquisition

The purchase of a company that has an outstanding offer to be acquired by another firm. For example, General Electric attempted to acquire Honeywell International for $45 billion shortly after Honeywell had received a $40 billion offer from United Technologies. Take-away acquisitions can be risky for the acquiring firm, which often has insufficient time to conduct a thorough analysis of the acquired company.