RE:NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAh no my friend, you are mistaken. It is unfortunate that many people believe that a majority shareholder can do whatever they like. In fact there are rules that protect minority holders, and one of them is that a majority of the minority shareholders has to approve an offer such as this. In fact the deal can fall apart if the majority of the non-Pattison shareholders vote no. If you read the news release you will see that it even says that a majority of the minority has to approve. The sad thing is that many minority holders fail to vote, having given up on the deal. I believe that the majority of the minority is out of those who cast votes, not out of those who hold shares. Actually a proxy solicitation will go out to all shareholders, and it will say that that those who don't vote, default their vote to management, ie to approval, so I guess it is likely that the deal will pass since only shareholders who care strongly anout the deal will go to the trouble to vote no.
I hate the way these offers are worded, since they always point out the negatives of the company and try to make it seem that they are doing the shareholders a favour by buying our shares. Of course it is self-serving. Sometimes a takeoever will succeed when the offered price is at or below the current market price. These takeovers often rely on the apathy of the shareholders.