[motherwell]

If a business is profitable, a publicly listed company can "arbitrage" the deal. As some rough numbers, a private sale nets 2-4 times profit as value. A public company is valued at 10-12, sometimes as high as 20 times.

If they buy a company making $500,000 at 4 times (for $2 million) the publicly listed companies value goes up, at a 10 times multiple, by $5 million.

Spend 2, and increase own value by 5, for a net of 3 million. Seems like a nobrainer really.