RE:SBB SummaryAlwaysLong - OK, well that is a far more balanced summary of the state of affairs than we have seen in the past - you appear to be acknowledging, for the first time from what I can see, that the SBB BOD and McLeod likely miscalculated, are clearly having second thoughts about their ability to pull the mine construction off on their own, never disclosed those concerns to us, and likely stand to gain significantly from walking away from the frequent, public committments they made to see this project through, thereby providing further motivation for them to bail - so at least we can agree on all that.
The Hackett River valuation we can agree to diasagree on, which is fair enough.
I also disagree that the SBB share price (and perhaps more importantly, the BTO share price), has gone up as a result of any enthusiasm by the market for this deal. Both BTO and SBB have risen purely because the price of gold has gone up, and because BTO has gone up to reflect rising gold prices, SBB has gone up in accordance with its relative value to BTO on the assumption that the deal goes through, probably because most investors think it will - but I wouldn't be so sure about that.
Lastly, to answer your question about the lack of competing bidders, in my view the market has seen McLeod blink, and that makes them nervous and wondering what it is that made him blink - or put another way, why would McLeod and the BOD recommend this lowball offer if SBB truly had all its ducks in a row, and the intestinal fortitude to see this through?
Anyway, in the end, if the deal gets voted down, the current team might well be saved by the ridiculous amount of profit to be generated by SBB through rising gold prices and stellar drill results anyway, and if the deal goes through the current team will walk away with millions and BTO may or may not discover a few skeletons in the closet, or they may make a killing. What happens to the rest of us remains to be seen - the bottom line is that we never should have been boxed into this corner, and having to decide between the devil we know and the devil we don't, without full disdclosure of the information we need to make an informed decision - and speaking of the devil we don't know, BTO already has something like 1.2 billion shares outstanding; lot's a lot, and nobody has expressed much concern about that, but that's a lot of shares, with a bunch more to be issued if this deal goes through, as I undersatnd it. How much upside do BTO shares have?? SBB has about 550 million shares outstanding - that's a much better number to divide with, once the mine is generating a few hundred million a year.