| 1. | a forcefully or heartily tight embrace. |
| 2. | Wrestling. a hold in which one contestant locks both arms around the other from the front in order to make the opponent fall backward. |
[bair-huhg] 
| to greet with or hold in a bear hug: eager fans bear-hugging the victorious team. |
| bear hug n. A rough, tight hug. |
Bear Hug
An offer made by a company to buy the shares of another company that is too high for the board of the target firm to refuse.
Investopedia Commentary
If the target company says the merger is okay but they want a higher price, it is called a "teddy bear hug."
Related Links
The Basics of Mergers and Acquisitions
Love Around Wall Street
The Wacky World of M&As
Bloodletting And Knights: A Medieval Guide To Investing
See also: Board of Directors, Hostile Takeover, Sleeping Beauty, Takeover, Target Firm
bear hug
Case Study Following rejection by the General Motors board of an EchoStar Communications takeover proposal for GM-controlled Hughes Electronics, owner of DirectTV, EchoStar soon made another surprise bid to acquire Hughes. At the time of the bid Hughes's equity was trading on the New York Stock Exchange as a tracking stock. The second bid, announced with a public letter addressed to the GM board, was a bear hug offer made directly to Hughes's stockholders. Believing that General Motors directors were likely to recommend a sale of Hughes to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., EchoStar felt it could only be successful by offering a higher price to Hughes's shareholders. The higher price would appeal to Hughes's shareholders and make it more difficult for GM directors to recommend a sale at a lower price to another company. GM directors rejected the earlier EchoStar offer in part because they felt the combination of DirectTV and EchoStar would be unacceptable on an antitrust basis. Rupert Murdoch later pulled out of the bidding for Hughes. |