its literally the upper bound.
How does one talk so confidently about something they know nothing about?
You are out of your depth.
the market cap is described in USD, but don’t get equal value of it and you definitely don’t get more.
If somebody would buy it for more, he would have already.
If somebody has a car and he gets 30_000 USD for it, that’s the value of it. If somebody wants a cart and he can get it for 30_000 USD that’s the price.
How do you plan to estimate value if you estimate it at the price somebody might pay for it in the future. It’s proofing too much.
Have you not noticed all buyouts are at a premium?
To repeat - you are just miles out of your depth here.
I’m aware that buyouts happen at a premium, but I state that this is not a valid argument to conclude market cap => value. If that statement would be true. Every share would be worth infinite money, as theoretically a buyer could show up and bid for infinite money.
So, we are left with the last trade, or the mid point of the bid/offer, as the best proxies. It is what it is.