comments byhanlong & 2nd offr delay good 4 sdl, page-17

I would imagine that a bidding war for SDL is similar to a house auction.

At the start, everyone is standing around twidling their thumbs, waiting for everyone else to make a move.

Some knob comes in and offers a very low bid. The Auctioneer is some what reluctant to accept it, but is obliged too acknowledge it and if nothing else, it puts a figure on the table for people to work off.

Some more twidling of the thumbs, while people wait for a serious bid.

Then someone comes in with a higher more serious bid.

Then some more twidling and maybe another bid.

Then after a while, the earlier bidders drop out, and just when you think one of the regular bidders has secured the winning bid, out of the blue a new comer comes in and shows his hand. This bidder had been waiting in the grass the entire time, but was not going to get into a bidding war early as they did not want to quickly drive up the price, however because they were seriously interested, they were forced to jump in before it was sold to someone else.

As you can see, the bidding process is all about holding back for as long as you can, as to not drive the price up or show anyone your hand, but there does become a point where you will flush them out, and that is just before it looks like a final deal is about to be agreed upon.

So it is no suprise to me that we haven't recieved another bid from anyone else yet.

Hanlong have just put the first lowball offer in to get things started. Other parties are not going to make a move, until SDL seriously start to consider accepting an offer.

If for instance, Hanlong come back with a revised offer, which would be somewhat closer to what SDL were hoping for. When other parties get the feeling that SDL is seriously considering this offer, this is when they will be flushed out and forced to show their hand, not before.