Economic consequences of takeovers are investigated by analyzing profitability of enterprises acquired as a direct or indirect ("white knight") result of tender offers. Target companies' pre-tender profitability averaged 0.97 percentage points below peer industry norms. Nine years after takeover, acquired lines of business had operating income/assets percentages 3.10 points below those of non-tender lines with similar industry bases, market shares, and merger accounting methods. Most of the targets' post-takeover profit decline stemmed from asset value writeups. There is no indication that on average the acquirers raised their targets' operating profitability, net of merger-related accounting adjustments.