My humble understanding of takeover law is that the bidder...

My humble understanding of takeover law is that the bidder cannot acquire shares at more than its stated bid price without formally extending that offer to all shareholders. So if they pay Freddy Nurks say 10 cents for his shares they are legally obliged to pay all those that have and/or do accept the offer...

Of course I could understand that they may undertake some informal price discovery looking to see where the general public might show some interest but I doubt that will be the main game.

As they are only about half way there (to complusory acquisition), poking/taunting/teasing the very small number of mum n dad investors is probably not their priority ... winning the heart and soles of a small number of large instos is where the real game is.