What is an undisturbed price?
What it means and how to read it on a deal.
Tracking Alpha
What it is
A reference close for where the target's shares traded before the deal, taken on a day set by a fixed rule.
How to read it
The checklist shows the price and the day it is from, with the filing's words when a filing states that close.
The day is the last trading day before the earliest official disclosure, in a press release or an SEC filing by a bidder or the target, of a proposal naming a price for all the shares, by any bidder in the process that led to this agreement. Without one, it is the last trading day before the deal's announcement. A disclosure after the market closed keeps that day's close. Later revisions, strategic reviews, the launch of a sale, leaks and press reports don't move it, so the price can already reflect them.
The deal maths use it as a reference price if the deal breaks, not a prediction of where the shares will trade.
Related terms
- Deal breakA deal that ends without closing: the agreement is terminated, for example because an approval is refused, holders vote it down or the buyer walks away.
- Market-implied chance of closingA calculation from market prices: the chance of closing at which holding to the expected close would earn what Treasury bills pay over the same time.
