Given the significant resources devoted to the acquisition process, public takeovers are risky undertakings and succeeding requires anticipating various strategic scenarios. While target shareholders can force the bidder to increase the offer price, they may also prefer the offer of a competitor over the offer of the initial bidder – or even reject all offers. In order to maximize the likelihood of winning the race for the target company, empirical research of past takeover offers helps to prepare potential investors for contingencies and mitigate economic setbacks.