White Squire

We are very proud of our little company, Pickle Cookbooks, LLC, which specializes in—you guessed it---creating and publishing cookbooks full of pickle recipes. It’s our area of expertise, and we are considered the authority on all things pickle. Unfortunately, we’re facing a hostile takeover by Mafia Publishing, Inc.; they’re aiming to buy us out and take over our enviable market niche.

Then, lo and behold, we receive an amazing offer from our friends over at Cheesebooks Limited, famed publishers of our favorite cookbook, Cheese and You: The Untold Story. Cheesebooks says they’re willing to purchase enough shares of Pickle Cookbooks to prevent the Mafia takeover, but not enough to hold a majority interest and thus gain control of our company. “What a deal,” we say. “Cheesebooks Limited is our hero,” we say.

When a company does what Cheesebooks did for us, preventing a hostile takeover by purchasing just enough stock in our company to prevent it, they’re called a white squire. Picture a noble knight on a glorious steed, riding to the rescue of some poor damsel in distress; that’s where the name “white squire” comes from, because that’s basically what the investing company is doing for the takeover target.

This is great for Pickle Cookbooks because, not only has a takeover been prevented, but we’ve also received an influx of capital from the shares purchased by Cheesebooks. And once the threat from Mafia Publishing is gone, Cheesebooks will most likely sell their shares so other investors can buy into the magic that is cooking with pickles.