I took this to apply to common things like buying a house, not M&A, but I think when you get a little emotionally invested in buying something the same concepts apply. Specifically, there's a phase where you've decided you want it already, but now you want to get the best price possible. The people selling it know you already want it, so they have all the leverage unless you're completely willing to walk away. In this scenario, setting an arbitrary target price makes sense, but only if you're completely unwilling to negotiate.