If there is a buy put announced and they don't cover, they are incredibly stupid. At some point they will be forced to cover. The risk for them is that often the initial buy out offer is rejected and the companies negoiate a higher price. There only hope is that negotiations fail and the buy out does not occur. At that point the price would decline, but perhaps not to the pre buy out price. There was a buy out offer in 2010 but it did not occur. the company is much stronger now.