Ten publishers began to bid on the book before Houghton Mifflin made a pre-emptive offer in the "high six figures," two people involved in the bidding said.

By making bold pre-emptive offers, he acquired many notable collections.

Mr. Hadar had signed the deal after making a pre-emptive offer for the tower three months ago.

"They saw our stock price as low, so why not try to knock it out with a pre-emptive offer."

This one here is a straightforward highest bid, the other is a sealed bid that's intended to elicit high pre-emptive offers.

Mr. Ashmead made a pre-emptive offer of $500,000, seeking to buy it on the spot, but Ms. Friedrich turned it down.

CBS made its de facto pre-emptive offer for the A.F.C. late last week.

He notified Dai-ichi that he wanted to make a pre-emptive offer for the building, before the Japanese company accepted any bids.

Johnson & Johnson could also make a pre-emptive new offer to stave off a bidding war.

The procedure whereby the pre-emptive offer is to be communicated to the shareholders is laid down in section 90.