> Then you don't have principles

I'd say if you reject any offer at any price, you don't have principles. You have dogmas.

Let's concoct a toy. You own 100% of a company. A suitor offers to buy it for $100bn. Not negotiable is that they will use 1,000 child laborers post-acquisition.

One could say refusing the $100bn to "save" the thousand from child labor is principled. More compelling, at least for me, is that one turned down the opportunity to go to Mars or rid the world of the guinea worm and possibly other bugs or cure this or that in exchange for feeling good about delaying the hiring of a thousand children.

Both calculi can become dangerous if taken too far. The balance arises in price.