....ok, I'll put it another way, it was a "sounding out exercise". It is very expensive to actually make bids/merge with other companies. So, what a company does if they want to buy another one is usually sound them out first, that is the proposal. What is the point of going to the expense of making a bid for a company, if they flatly reject it?
Another analogy: think to your school days. Were you the confident kid who went straight up to another boy or girl and asked them out (a bid)? Or, did you "sound out" out the prospect first with their friends (a proposal) to avoid disappointment? I was the unconfident one here
See the difference?
---------- Post added at 14:10 ---------- Previous post was at 14:04 ----------
Here is the first paragraph from the 2nd press release dated Dec 6th, which I provided the link for:
"NTL announces that it has no present intention of making an offer for ITV, as it believes a transaction between ITV and NTL is unlikely to be attained on terms acceptable to NTL."
Why would ntl say "it has no present intention of making an offer for ITV" if it had already made such an offer?