When Jim Crawford, the flamboyant Chairman of Electronics company, Ayot plc, launches a hostile bid for old-fashioned Byfield plc it is at first appears just another example of market forces dictating the survival of the fittest, irrespective of the human cost. But it soon becomes apparent that Crawford has another motivation: an old score to settle with Byfield's Chairman, John Parker. When things get personal cool business sense is the first business casualty. Takeover gives an exhilarating view of how business really works at board level and sounds a salutary warning to acquisition-hungry businesses: if you think acquisitions are an easy route to growth, think again. Takeover is essential reading for everybody interested in business and how the financial world works. Ride the takeover roundabout and experience the excitement of success and the grim reality of the terrible financial and human cost when things go wrong Treason doth prosper, what the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason. Sir John Harington, Epigrams, 1618