BTE - Case for no takeover1- BTE's credit situation is unchanged in the past 3 months - they didn't sell in the summer highs, why would they sell in the autumn lows knowing a pick up will come in 2017? 2- BTE has an ace up its sleeve: Eagle Ford. They will probably never sell it as it is the part of their business that keeps the rest afloat. Other oil companies probably don't want the other fragments and don't want to pay for them. Hence stalemate. 3- BTE debt is huge, just like in point 2, other companies want Eagle Ford, but not BTE's debt and since BTE would be worse off without Eagle Ford, again another stalemate. 4- If BTE is confident that it has secured its loans and hedged it production well, they have less incentive to sell low. If they planned the former badly and want to bail, then buyers will most likely be turned off from buying. This is just me wrestling with ideas and rationalizations, I am not an industry expert and have no insider knowledge.