Love a good bidding war? Let's catch up on our favorite mining companies to see how the next chapter has turned out.
For those of you with short memories, Inco (N), and Xstrata (XTA.S) both wanted to buy Falconbridge (FAL). Teck Cominco (TCK) wanted to buy N but the offer was conditional on Inco dropping their FAL bid. Phelps Dodge (PD) got into the act by making a white knight offer for N. FAL wanted N to buy them and agreed to pay lots of money if the deal didn't happen. N wants PD to buy them.
It looks now like XTA.S will win the battle for FAL. FAL will pay N the money. N is then eligible for the TCK offer. TCK raised its bid for N today by 11%. The TCK offer deadline for tendering is August 16, 2006. More bidders may appear and PD may raise its offer although analysts don't think they have too much room to do so.
How will it all turn out? I'm all a twitter in anticipation.
