Acquisitions are one of the most capital-intensive activities in which you can engage. In addition, statistically, most acquisitions are failures from the perspective of the buyer. There is even a term for this, it’s called the “winners curse”. It is in the nature of the process that there is always at least one bidder with enough hubris to over pay for a company in play. This means that it is almost certain that you will never pay less than fair market value (and often more)... and most of the time you will not be able to recapture that value after the acquisition. If you want to buy low and sell high... be the seller, not the buyer. If an acquisition target has something you want, don’t make a bid for the company. Instead, find out what kind of one-sided partnering you can purchase for 20% of what you would otherwise have to pay for the company. You will be amazed at how much you can buy for how little... without onerous investment banking fees.