However I caution you not to set the price too high. You may end up owning the company. This could be the worst thing that could happen to you. In the first place you really can't afford it at the price you would be paying for it. Remember you are in the game to make money - not to take risks or to manage things. It is not likely that you can run it any better than the management that is in place and certainly not any better than a new management that could be put in place if the target's board gets queasy about the quality of the current management. You want the price high enough to cause the target's management and board to fear that you will prevail. Their first reaction may be to offer you "greenmail," a ploy to buy the stock accumulated by you and your associates at a price well above your costs on condition that you'll just go away and stay away. If the price is right, take it and run! Run back to your office, pocket the profits, and initiate the process for selecting the next target. Remember if you miscalculate and end up owning the company, you may have painted yourself into a corner. Your own capital is tied up. Your associates are mad at you and won't do business with you in the future. You've paid a fat premium price and loaded up the company with "junk bonds" which require heavy debt service out of an inadequate existing cash flow. Your interest expense will be so high that you won't have to pay corporate income taxes but this is the only bright light in an otherwise dismal outlook. To survive those trapped in these circumstances have had to cut all discretionary expenditures or investments to the bone - no research and development, no 8.