As a substantial shareholder, I hesitated in posting this other article also in tonight's Midas, but I felt as long as Bill Murphy was publishing both sides, then this board should too.

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Hi Bill:
As a minor, minor holder of ECU stock, it was worthwhile for me to do a little checking on this ECU deal.
First of all, the major holder (almost 20%) of AUMN is Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=AUMN+Major+Holders

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gilder
Richard Gilder, co-founder of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, heads the brokerage firm Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co. The firm's specialty is trading leveraged stocks and shortselling.Richard Gilder, co-founder of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, heads the brokerage firm Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co. The firm's specialty is trading leveraged stocks and shortselling. (shortselling, huh.)

Turns out Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co.ties into JP Morgan Clearing Corp. (formerly Bear Stearns)
If you look at the bottom of the web page, you'll see their link to JPMCC Financial Statement.
http://www.gghc.com/

http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=4255534
J.P. Morgan Clearing Corp. offers securities clearing, custody, order execution, settlement, and lending services to traders, hedge fund managers, broker-dealers, and investment advisors. The company also provides operational and administrative services for registered broker dealers. J.P. Morgan Clearing Corp. was formerly known as Bear, Stearns Securities Corp. and changed its name to J.P. Morgan Clearing Corp. in October 2008. The company was incorporated in 1991 and is based in Brooklyn, New York. As of March 16, 2008, J.P. Morgan Clearing Corp. operates as a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.

In my jaundiced eyes, they probably short-sold the hell out of ECU and are now trying to consolidate their efforts.
I have no doubt the same thing is happening between Newcrest and Harmony.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-02/harmony-s-massive-gold-copper-mine-may-lure-newcrest-bid.html
If one bothers to look up the major holders of Newcrest, they'll see HSBC and JP Morgan in the top three.
http://www.newcrest.com.au//major.asp
The top four holders control over 71%.
Sell short, buy company, keeps future gains to themselves.
Sucks!!!
Respectfully,
Edward Ulysses Cate

MIDAS note: Sucks indeed, but the bottom line is this was a merger of equal market cap stocks and seems to me to be a mutually beneficial one ... one should greatly enhance ECU shareholder value in the months ahead. This is not what I envisioned 12 years ago, but that’s the way it is. The upside for ECU existing ECU shareholders has been more capped to some degree, but its downside greatly protected. That said, when ECU morphs into the new company at the proposed 20 to 1 ratio, it will become a marginable stock (AUMN) and I intend to modestly add to my position at that time….