Yes agreed 2ic, when I saw the volume increase from 1mil to...

Yes agreed 2ic, when I saw the volume increase from 1mil to 3mil, my assumption of who is selling and what's going on changed a little.

i assumed that there must have been back stage discussions going on between a buyer and that seller, and the seller was not willing to sell down to 52 and the buyer not willing to pay the sellers price of 55, so I concluded that the seller, probably feeling like they are, for whatever reason, in the stronger negotiating position, decided to stick the stock on public display and make it available to anyone to put the buyer under some extra pressure to pay up.

I've also concluded that the deal must have been close to happening because we've seen a bit of buying paying up (54-55) in the last three days, even with that stock seemingly acting like a big ceiling, which suggests to me that those who know the negotiations are betting that the stock will get transacted @ 55 shortly, and if that happens it will probably mean the resumption of an uptrending share price.

but your theory also holds water, but under those circumstances I wouldn't have expected what look like a few very eager buyers paying up.

will be interesting to see how it plays out.