What happens to stock shareholders own when one company takes over another company?

This question has probably been asked before, but if I own shares in one company and another company offers to buy out that company at a certain price per share, what happens to my shares of stock after the sale? Am I stripped of my stock automatically by the takeover company against my will? Do I sell my shares to that company? Or does the value of my stock plummet to $0 if I keep them?|||The holders of the company being taken over usually get a ratio of shares under the acquisition agreement and perhaps a small cash payment for odd lots of shares. No, if you have, say, a $20 per share stock and IBM at $80 buys your company in a bid of .25 shares of IBM for YOUR Company shares, then you will get 100 IBM shares for each 400 shares of YOUR company. It happens all the time when there is a strong general market. It should, generally, be viewed as good news in the IBM example. Many buyouts today are likely not going to be priced for the acquired company because it is a market in which mergers are being entered just to avoid liquidation bankruptcy.|||Depends on how the takeover occurs. If your company gets tender offers or an aggressive takeover campaign is initiated, you may be offered money for your shares.





Usually what happens after a takeover is the company locks in the share price and than begin to either liquidate its assets (including your shares) or assimilates them into the mother corporation. If I were you, I would be looking into what the offers are (but unfortunately, the offers are usually made to big shareholders. i.e: holding 5% of a company's outstanding)