When the comparison matters
Almost all U.S. public-company tender offers today are friendly — negotiated up front, signed via merger agreement, supported by the board, and structured around a clean §251(h) back-end merger. The hostile column above describes a textbook structure that rarely reaches expiration in modern U.S. practice; would-be hostile bidders typically pivot to bear-hug letters or activist campaigns to force the board to negotiate.
Why hostile tenders are rare today
The combination of universally-available poison pills, staggered boards (in some companies), Delaware fiduciary-duty doctrine, and the practical difficulty of running a 60-day tender in the face of board opposition has made pure hostile takeovers a niche structure. The activist-shareholder campaign — Schedule 13D + proxy contest + media pressure — has largely supplanted the hostile tender as the lever for unwilling targets.