Ann: Pause in Trading, page-22

We don't have all the information to come to any conclusions.
If bidder a) indicated the maximum they would pay was $1.20, bidder b) $1.25 & Rouse $1.40 it would be entirely appropriate to only open the books to Rouse.

Aside from not being given access to the dataroom both the other bidders could go public with a higher indicative offer after any conditional bid from Rouse is forthcoming forcing the board's hand. I've seen it before happen when exclusive access hasn't meant the eventual successful bidder.