I'm not sure if that is understood by all here. Thus, if you tender FWR shares to NOT, NOT has no legal ability not to acquire those shares. NOT can rescind the offer before Dec 11, but I'm pretty sure that would only be effective for any FWR shares not already tendered. But if FWR shares are timely tendered, they are going to be bought, or NOT will be in breach of contract. Would NOT rescind the offer - well, I suppose if they were getting so few shares tendered that they felt they had no chance to stop Cliffs (see below), they might pull the plug so as not to be on the hook for more shares. Of course, they could later vote to ratify the Cliffs' deal (if you can't beat them, join them!), could they not?

Between (i) whatever percentage of shares NOT gets as the result of their offer and (ii) the percentage of shares owned by those FWR shareholders who do not like Cliff's and/or their offer, and, therefore, vote against the Cliff's deal in January, it would seem that the Cliff's deal might well be defeated. NOT likely has a very good idea how many shares it would have to own to defeat the Cliff's deal (of course, 34% is a sure thing, but some smaller percentage is likely very safe, too, as not all FWR shareholders think alike - duh!). Thus, after the NOT offer expires, NOT can extend it, if it feels they need more shares, or, and this is where I need help from you guys, they could buy more in the open market to get to a percentage they are comfortable with. The help I need is whether NOT can buy more in the open market after having a tender out there, don't see why not, but not at all sure about this.

I have absolutely no idea of how many shares have already been tendered - my guess is not too many, but many will be coming in over the next couple of days. Will they get 5%, 10%, 20% or 30% - I don't have a good feel for this at all. Also not sure how soon after Dec 11 NOT is required to disclose the percentage they did acquire.

But, I will say that I like the way NOT has played this so far. There are many moves potentially to be made (by any and all parties) between now and when the dust finally settles. It does make for excitement and a great learning experience, especially for the younger investors. To the extent that the ROF has become an addictive drug for people, I can't see the "addicts" wanting to be acquired by Cliffs - the excitement will have been diluted multifold. On the other hand, I suppose they could take their money, pay their taxes, and buy NOT or other ROF companies with the proceeds and get their thrills that way.

By the way, all this excitement sometimes borders on hubris about the proximate effect of all this on the share prices on the various players - watch out for that - karma has a way of trumping all!! We're shielded, but far from immune, from the effects of the market for commodities.