EthicsGradient wrote:Gengulphus wrote:the fact that they recommended the first actual offer that came along
More than one person has said this, but it's wrong. The first offer of 230p/share from CD&R was rejected by the directors: https://www.reuters.com/business/retail ... 021-06-19/
Now go to the horse's mouth, by reading the CD&R and Morrisons RNS announcements about it. It was a "possible offer" according to the former and a "proposed offer" according to the latter, and both stated that there could be no certainty that an offer would be made. It never became an actual offer - if it had done so, there would have been certainty that an offer had been made, and shareholders would have been asked whether they individually wanted to accept it or to vote on whether they collectively wanted to accept it (depending on the form of the offer - the latter is probably far more likely given the forms of the subsequent offers).
So I stand by what I said: the Morrisons directors recommended the first actual offer that came along - and this is entirely normal for takeovers because earlier proposals don't usually become actual offers (and quite possibly don't become visible at all) without the directors' recommendation. There are exceptions when a bidder 'goes hostile', but they're comparatively rare.
Gengulphus