Sorkin outlines why a company typically gets sold.

Andrew Ross Sorkin: The seller, well, I think there's a couple of things that typically happen when a company gets sold and why a company gets sold. You know, one reason is that the stock is in the toilet. And that the CEO sees the handwriting on the wall and says, I got to get out of this. It's not going to get any better. If we can get a premium for our shares, we should take it and we should run like the wind. That's one scenario. You have other scenarios where a company is owned by family for example.

You have a situation like the sale of Dow Jones frankly, where you have a family who is divided, who some people need money, want money, some others don't. And depending on who wins, perhaps they decide to sell the company. You have generational change. You have situations where a company or a company may have a CEO, a great leader of a CEO who's going to retire and then the board has to say to themselves, well how are we going to continue running this company? Well maybe the better option is to sell the company to a buyer. And then of course you have hostile deals where a company approaches you on a hostile basis and depending on how the market reacts, you may not have a choice.

Recorded on: June 3, 2008