Acquire

When you place a tile horizontally or vertically next to another tile that isn't already part of a hotel chain, you have just founded a new hotel chain. Diagonals do not start hotel chains. Pick a hotel chain not currently in play from the side of the board and place it covering the two newly connected tiles. You receive one free stock of that chain for founding it. If you place a tile next to an adjacent hotel chain, it becomes part of that hotel chain, making it bigger in size. The size of a hotel chain is important for keeping track of its stock price and merger payouts. When you place a tile so that it connects two or more hotel chains, a merger takes place. A merger means that the bigger hotel chain is acquiring the smaller hotel chains. Count each hotel chain's tiles. The one with more acquires the one with less. If it is a tie, then the player decides which hotel acquires which. During the merger, the tile you placed doesn't count towards any hotel chain's size. Each player who has stock in the merging hotel chains counts up how much of each hotel, before the merging, they have to determine the majority and minority stock holders. The player with the most stock holds majority, and the player with the second most has minority. Each player receives a shareholder bonus and is paid by the bank as indicated by the reference chart. If two players are tied for majority, then add up the majority and minority bonuses and split it evenly, rounded to the nearest $100. The minority in this case does not receive a bonus. If the minority is tied, then the two players split the minority bonus evenly, rounded to the nearest $100. If only one player has stock in the hotel chain, he receives both majority and minority bonuses. Players must then decide what to do with their stocks of an acquired hotel chain. Each player, starting with the player who made the merger and proceeding clockwise, must decide to hold, trade, or sell in any combination his stocks in that hotel chain. If you hold your stock when a merger happens, you will own stock of a hotel that won't exist on the game board. It has zero value unless the hotel chain becomes founded again. Players may choose to trade two stocks of the acquired hotel chain for one stock of the hotel chain that acquired it. Players may choose to sell their stock of the acquired hotel chain. The bank pays a player the sell price listed on the reference chart based on the current size of the hotel chain for each stock that player sells. Once each player has taken their turn, the acquired hotel chain is put back on the side of the board. It now becomes available to found a new hotel chain. If a hotel chain grows to a size of 11 tiles or more, then it's considered safe. A safe hotel chain may not be acquired by a larger hotel. Any play that would cause this is illegal. If all the tiles in your hand cannot be played legally, reveal them to all the players and set them aside. Draw six new tiles and continue your turn. When multiple chains are acquired, first resolve the merger by the largest and second largest hotel chains. Once everything is resolved, repeat until all the hotel chains have been merged.