What happens to stock prices in a takeover?

The is company x which is very large and the competitor y. Company x decides to takeover y.





In a hostile takeover-


what happens to the stock prices of company x and y during, and after?


If company x wants to fire management and "kill" the company, how can y prevent this?





In a acquisition takeover-


what happens to the stock prices of company x and y during and after?|||If x tries to acquire y then this typically results in the shares of y going up and the shares of x going down (it is not guaranteed of course). Risk arbitraguers exploit this by buying y and shorting x.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_arbitr鈥?/a>



y can try to prevent the acquisition by instituting a poison pill (Yahoo's poison pill thwarted Microsoft's takeover attempt which resulted in a huge decline in Yahoo's stock price). For example, a company might give shareholders the right to buy new shares at a discount which is triggered when another shareholder controls a certain percentage of the company..



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_pill