4 Companies That Should Have Sold Out

Mergers and buyouts are part and parcel of the investing experience. While a buyout bid can give a nice return to a short-term investor, longer-term investors often fret that a bid may entice management to sell a company for less than its true long-term value. What is also true, though, is that sometimes managers are unreasonably and unproductively stubborn - refusing to hand over the reins (and their large executive salaries) and allow shareholders to book a profit or own shares in a larger enterprise. (For related reading, take a look at Mergers: The Sign Of Economic Recovery?)

With news swirling around 3Par's (NYSE:PAR) willingness to sell to either Dell (Nasdaq:DELL) or Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), there is the sharp contrast of Genzyme's (Nasdaq:GENZ) resistance to a bid from Sanofi-aventis. Let us take a look at examples where shareholders really would have been better-served if their managers had signed on the dotted line and taken the deal. (Find out how you can cash in, read Trade Takeover Stocks With Merger Arbitrage.)

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