Back in 2000 when we were involved with Lanier I was following them closely and remembered when they were bought out by Ricoh. The shareprice went from .50 to $3.00 overnight with little to no volume increase. I found an article that cronicles Laniers history and mentions what happened.

http://companies.jrank.org/pages/249...

The joy of being a separate company was short-lived for Cantrell and Lanier, however. His cancer flared up once again, which he suspected was related to the pressures of splitting the company from Harris. In March 2000 he had the cancer removed and stayed away from the compan y for a month. "But back at Lanier," according to Atlanta Business Chronicle in a 2000 article, "the situation was deteriorating. T he copier industry is making a transition from the older analog techn ology to the newer digital technology, putting great pressure on pric es. Lanier buys the office machines it distributes from Japanese manu facturers, and a stronger yen has meant falling profit margins. Price increases are unheard of, and the entire industry is looking at decl ining revenues." In order to cut costs and remain competitive, Cantre ll eliminated some 500 jobs.

Although not close to going bankrupt, Lanier, saddled with heavy debt , found itself in a difficult situation. As a result, it was open to overtures from five companies who were interested in buying Lanier. C antrell decided he should at least listen to the offers and concluded that Japan's Ricoh Corporation's bid of $3 per share of stock, w hich at this point had plunged to the 50 cent range, was too good to pass up. In late November 2000, Ricoh paid about $260 million for Lanier and took on its remaining $650 million in debt. Lanier no t only gained financial security but was now tied to one of its chief manufacturer/suppliers.

I wasn't able to retreive the daily volume and shareprice records for that transaction but I'm sure it's accessable.

My point is that not every business transaction is telegraphed to the investment community via insider information. This was an overnight deal and went thru as such. Others here may remember this as well.

Larry