There's vastly more profit in buying a few companies at 33 paise on the rupee than in buying lots of companies at 99 paise on the rupee. And coordinated punishment of any newcomers - who try to disrupt a status quo of systematic underbidding - does not even require communication between the incumbents.
Then who is buying at 33 paise? You are contradicting yourself.
If something “worth” 1 rupee is not selling for 1 rupee,then the logical conclusion, absent collusion/cartel/monopsony behavior, is that it is not worth 1 rupee or even 99 paise, but rather the 33 paise that it is selling at.
The established players - and occasional well-behaved newcomers - are buying at (say) 33 paise on the rupee.
The "1 rupee" is what the business would be worth, in a highly efficient, open market. Which this market clearly is not. And the regulars are quietly colluding to keep it that way.
The context of _rm’s post is not about the OP’s dad’s specific business in its specific regulatory environment which may or may not constitute a “highly efficient, open market”.
> lot of these solo owners who build up a business over the course of many decades serious underestimate how hard they are to sell, and have an unrealistic idea of what valuation they'll be able to get.
From this, I get the sense that _rm was talking about owners of niche businesses that are surprised to find a smaller market of interested buyers, and hence are surprised they cannot sell their business at a price they hoped to get.
My point was simply that just because a seller cannot get a buyer to pay the price they hoped, that does not make the buyer a “bad” person.