Article at a glance:

Preempting hostile takeovers

• The ever-rising level of mergers and acquisitions and the increasing number of hostile takeovers suggest an intensifying market for corporate control—and managers are nervously scanning the horizon for unwanted suitors.
• Their first inclination is to look for quick ways of shrugging off unsolicited bids and maintaining the strategic independence of their own companies. But there are no silver bullets.
• Instead, managers should take a longer-term view, going back to the basics of value creation to rethink how their companies might be vulnerable—and to capture preemptively any value that would make those companies attractive takeover targets.