interfere unduly with their efficient management of the acquisition. They also are likely to have a "strategic fit" with the target company so that profits can be increased and a price justified that is higher than yours. Be thankful that they can outbid you. Then there will be those unsolicited offers which will come from companies that on their own or through the eyes of investment bankers see the target company or some of its divisions as a genuine strategic fit that will produce great benefits through consolidation with their existing businesses. They can offer top dollar, with which you as a raider can't compete and shouldn't compete. By now the benefits of being a corporate raider must be clear to you. Just don't end up owning the company. Whatever other response is forthcoming you will benefit by selling your shares out at a handsome profit. You will be richly rewarded whether the price increase stems from "greenmail," a leveraged buyout, a white knight, or an unsolicited stranger. But I counsel you to strike while the iron is hot, get in while the getting is good, because it's too good to last. What you have is a window of opportunity -- a window opened by the euphoric times for corporate America that followed World War II -- a time when U.S. companies dominated markets here and abroad in a world hungry for goods and services. It was a rising tide that lifted all boats but it made it more difficult to discern those that were really dead in the water. You didn't have to be good to look good. Good times combined with restrictive government policies to produce responses from many companies that resulted in declining 11.