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Yesterday was the first closing day for acceptances for HP’s bid to acquire Autonomy (See TechMarketView’s class leading coverage of this in the archives eg HP and Autonomy). As the deadline passed only 41.6% acceptances had been received and the deadline has been extended to 3rd Oct 11.
The £25.50 per share/$10b offer for Autonomy really looked ‘top of the range’. Nobody really expected a rival bid to top that so it’s a bit surprising that the acceptances to date are not higher. Indeed, immediate reaction on the Stock Exchange is to mark Autonomy shares higher at £25.20 – still a smidgen below the £25.50 offer price. I still don’t see any rival bid as likely – but ‘never say never’.
