Mr. Maket sez the pros are betting on a higher bid. Quotes from Schwab on PROBF and GG have pretty consistently shown a small price premium in Probe's favor, typically running between 0 - 1% whenever I've checked the two at the same time. Arbitragers don't pay premiums, they buy discounts. Agrressive money buys when, for a small premium, they can hedge the position by buying PROBF and selling Goldcorp. A 15% higher bid provides a highly leveraged and quick return if that higher bid emerges. They are betting it will.

At last look, Probe was up 2.18% and Goldcorp was up 1.26%, with the dollar value of Goldcorp trading running about 20 times that in Probe. So locking in the aggressive trade is unlikely to influence Goldcorp's price much.

So what has our much reviled board and poor Dave accomplished? A record stock price. All the liquidity you could want to adjust your position if you want. Got the conservative bidder, Goldcorp, to make a conservative bid first, which they really had to accept. The tone of a lot of our comments say they'd have faced a lynching or class action suit if they'd passed and the stock dropped.

So the Board has given us a great value increase and liquidity. A higher value is only real if someone is willing to pay it, and they must have much deeper pockets than you and me. Mr. Market sez that's going to happen, and when it does, let's remember to thank Dave (and the board).

NSS