The takeover price includes about $50 million in outstanding debt.

In this case, the stock rose well above the takeover price, demonstrating "good management that did the right thing for shareholders," he said.

"The fact that textile mergers are in is logical since the industry has been enjoying good business and takeover prices have come high.

The takeover price for Mannesmann shares is more than double what they cost before the takeover battle began.

Analysts say that other New York banks that are seen as targets may already be at or close to their potential takeover prices.

While obviously taking the Maxwell offer seriously, Wall Street apparently believes a higher takeover price will emerge for the publishing and information services company.

Recent L.B.O.'s benefited the target companies' shareholders, who received high takeover prices.

The assumption is that Texaco's market value would quickly jump past the takeover price after it settles with Pennzoil.

For instance, Connecticut requires Con Ed to pay an "acquisition premium" of $1.5 billion, which is included in the $3.8 billion takeover price.

A few weeks earlier, Prescott, Ball & Turben, an investment firm in Cleveland, told investors to look for a takeover price "in the high teens."

Sterling has since agreed to be acquired by the Eastman Kodak Company in a $5.2 billion deal and its stock has risen close to the $89.50-a-share takeover price.

He said he had concluded that takeover prices in the military business had grown too large, making a strategic merger the most effective way to grow in a consolidating industry.

Trinity House took over operation of the lighthouse under an enabling act of 1836, but not without a fight from the original owners, who wanted to protect their investment from a low takeover price.

Arbitragers were already betting that the Cardinal-Bergen deal had only a 50-50 chance, as reflected in the failure of Bergen Brunswig stock to rise to the implied takeover price, analysts said.

And, in fact, some takeover prices have not been lowered - a reflection, merger experts say, of the fact that the method acquirers used to value their targets was only partly related to the stock market.

The analysts noted that the proposed takeover price represented a 50 percent premium over Square D's closing price today and that the company's stock had traded as low as $33 in the last year.

The talks center on the final takeover price and the treatment of a 21 percent stake in Midlands held by a huge British utility, Powergen P.L.C., according to the investment bankers.

The rules include a silent period during which the consortium is not allowed to disclose more specific details of its takeover price for seven days, or before May 3, even to ABN Amro.

If G.E. raises its $45-a-share bid enough to win Roper, Whirlpool will seek damages based on its assessment of Roper's value to it, which could be considerably more than the takeover price.

"It enhanced the takeover price of Upjohn, Warner-Lambert, Schering-Plough - you name it," said Neil B. Sweig, an analyst at Ladenberg, Thalmann & Company.

In theory, golden parachutes were meant to ensure that executives would stay focused on their managerial knitting and would not be swayed by raiders who were dangling fat takeover prices in front of them.

While there is an argument to be made for the three companies' taking over Apple, it would create conflicts for each of them, analysts said, and an Apple takeover price could reach $60 a share, or $7 billion.

Department stores other than discount stores have been drawing takeover prices in recent years of about 100 percent of revenues, said Robert F. Buchanan, senior analyst at A. G. Edwards of St. Louis.

The escalating takeover prices - until two weeks ago, the biggest deal was $13.4 billion - come just a year after the stock market crash and many fear that a speculative frenzy like the one that preceded the crash might be unfolding.

While no buyout executives will say on the record that the purpose of forming a team is to keep the asking price from going too high, privately, most will concede that reducing the final takeover price is sometimes the result.