a good question. Last year all was rosy, we were heading for...

a good question. Last year all was rosy, we were heading for golden times with the pipeline and money would flow allowing for expansion. Now suddenly everything is bad, and the only way we can escape is this buyout - that seems to be what we are being asked to accept.

Many don't accept that - we can't believe that despite having turned so quickly that we could have a saviour willing to step in and buy us out.

Some of us have looked at the timing of the offer and concluded that it was a "now or never" time for Mac, that we were about to have all the contracts ready to go and the last chance of a lowball offer was about to disappear.

Let's be frank - Macquarie bank aren't making an offer unless they believe they can make a solid profit. Now Mac have a few things lined up that we don't - endless funding, etc, which would make it a lot easier. But the opportunity should still be there for CTP, if we can get the funding we need.

As for other offers - maybe few are in a position to take us on at this time. Maybe few have failed to see the value. Maybe they don't want to take on Mac.

I don't think Cottee and the board are trying to sell us out cheaply. I think they have done what is required, and recommended an offer in difficult times. They looked at the safe route and decided that if you needed to play safe then taking this bid was the safest option.

But many of us invested in CTP as a wildcard. We aren't looking for safe, we are looking for a big win. They aren't easy, they risky and rare. But many have shown that they'd rather stay on for the longer term. Some of us seem to feel that we are so far down already we may as well ride on for now.