RE: RE: realistic The companies bidding do not want their bids made public because they have shareholders too and they'd get all kinds of second guessing, complaints, and (more likely for US-based companies) lawsuits. Most likely the CAs work both ways, so neither party can divulge information without the consent of the other.
It is possible that a bid that appears to be the highest is declared the winner and made public, followed by one of the other bidders making their own bid public. They could argue that THEIR bid is actually BETTER. For example, this could happen because one company offered stock (which changes in value) and other offered cash. Or because there are other clauses in the contract that, to the WND Board, makes the one bid better than others (and this could be related to the size of the Golden Parachutes or the size of the break fee, or whether it is contingent on getting financing or not).
If that happens, there could be a public bidding war that would likely be to the shareholders' advantage. Of course, a stubborn Board could hurt that process or agree to a break fee that deterred any of the bidders to go public with a better bid. I am not predicting that will happen, just that this and other stupidities have happened with other companies doing buyout deals before, so they could happen.
Obviously, the high bidder will want to ensure that they don't get outbid by having the contract terms make it as close to impossible as they can. These kinds of clauses are one of the things that affect how good or not-so-good a deal really is. That is distinct from the actual buyout price being offered, because it may affect the eventual actual buyout price that shareholders get.