I won't repeat them here, but Whaler has some interesting posts on ISM today about Xstrata's strategy on the Lonmin platinum mine they have been trying to acquire.

Essentially they dropped their acquisition bid and then just after the announcement picked up a larger position on the open market, bring their position to 25%.

I find this interesting for two reasons:

1. It is a sign of the times that Xstrata can pick up shares at a very large discount from what they had previously offered; and,

2. As much as we fret about financing and credit, there is a whole bunch of money out there still, and some of the big companies have a tremendous opportunity here to make some huge acquisitions at enormous discounts.

Cheers,

Bluenoser