> curious how often tactics like this work

Hostile takeovers hit their zenith "in the 1980s" [1], when about 50% of attempts succeeded [2].

Since then, Delaware courts have become more Board friendly (specifically, friendly to takeover defences), antitrust made "it more difficult for companies with large market shares to acquire competitors without some level of cooperation from the target company," and stocks became more expensive [1]. (I'm struggling to find recent literature on frequencies.)

Compared to the 1980s and pre-Covid hostile takeover zenith, stocks remain expensive. But money is chaper, particularly for the politically connected. Antitrust is a wild card. And Warner has reduced takeover defences given it's already in the market for a sale (Revlon duties).

So...somewhere below 50%?

[1] https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/11/08/the-comeback-of-h...

[2] https://faculty.fiu.edu/~daiglerr/pdf/hostile_takeovers.pdf