A white knight for Shibaura Electronics, against Yageo (2025)

A case for protecting technology, and a discipline left unbroken

At the centre of this judgement was a tension between the logic of combination management — add one more core business — and the acquisition discipline of never overpaying. Temperature sensors were a gap in the map, and there was motive enough to step forward. But contesting an unsolicited bid tends to drive the price up, and the more faithfully the discipline is kept, the lower the odds of winning. The case for protecting technology and the discipline of protecting returns pointed in opposite directions within the same contest, and that is where the difficulty of this decision can be seen.

On results alone, Minebea Mitsumi did not get Shibaura Electronics. Whether withdrawing without breaking its discipline should be dismissed as a defeat is, however, still unsettled. For a company that once mounted a hostile bid itself and was in turn made a target, this contest was also an occasion to re-examine the etiquette of being the buyer. How is Japanese technology to be protected, and when a company raising that banner retreats in the face of a price — which takes precedence, economic security or market logic? The fate of Shibaura Electronics can be seen to have left that question behind it.