A takeover bid occurs when an investor makes an offer to all the shareholders of a publicly traded company (the "target") to purchase their shares in that company at a specified price. If enough shareholders "tender" their shares and accept the offer (the threshold is set by the investor in each deal, but is usually between 30-70%), then the deal goes ahead and the investor purchases all the shares that were tendered. When presented with a proposed takeover bid, the board of directors of the target often takes defensive actions, including soliciting bids from other potential investors, buying back stock from shareholders, or auctioning off "crown jewel" assets that might be the target of the bid.