RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:New Ellis Martin interview w/PaulI was thinking along the lines of what I see happening all the time with bids. Yes, you have some that are known and active, but you often times have shadow bidders who won't reveal themselves until the last moment. Why employ that strategy? Well, if all the shadow bidders reveal themselves up front it runs the price up and prevents the possibility of getting the prize at a lower price when the dust settles.
Granted, we aren't in a timed bidding process for Casino, however, shadow bidders may wait for the inevitable lowball offer from RIO and then swoop in as the "white knight" with a superior offer. Of course, RIO may counter, but as we've seen with Turquoise, they aren't too keen on bending over backwards to bowl the shareholders of the target company over.
What we all want is the scenario where both NEM and RIO have to have Casino and both companies push their bid to the point where they've maxed out their offers. Let's see what happens, I have a good feeling with Casino, so I'm not worried about the relative calm right now.