system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: A Hostile Takeover of a corporation

title kind of explains it all. How does a guy or group of investors "hostilely" take over a corporation and is there a such thing as a "non-hostile takeover"?
gpt
Shares are traded publicly. In order to control a company completely all you need is to own 50% + 1 share. If a group of investors wants to take over control they can simply go around and try to purchase enough shares to reach that point; ~~it is important to note that there is no requirement that they let it be known they are in cahoots!~~ They would tend to hide this because once they got to 49% for example the other shareholders would try to charge more because they know they really want those last few shares.

The idea of a hostile takeover is that it allows a company to take over another company even if the management doesn't want to agree to a merger or acquisition. For example, suppose "Happy Tom's Puppy Breeders" is being given offers of merger or acquisition by "Uncle Slappy's Potted Meat Co." but Tom's management is turning them down because they don't want puppies to be canned on an industrial scale. Even though the management is against the idea, if Slappy's management decides to start purchasing shares of Tom's on the open market ~~there isn't anything Tom's management can do to stop them.~~ Once Slappy's or a combination of its subsidiaries owns 50% + 1 share of the company they can start replacing board members until they can win a vote to replace the CEO, and then the CEO replaces the rest of the management if needed until succulent puppy meat hits the market.

Edit: See comments below for clarification and better information.