Jake, In the case of BPT's offer, it was never the case that BPT...

Jake,

In the case of BPT's offer, it was never the case that BPT was going to return the ADE shares it bought on market. Hence why the offer was unconditional from the start.

All BPT ever wanted, was to get as many shares as possible in ADE to gain as much control as possible in that company's saying. And when Walker sold out to them, (I still can't figure out as to why Walker capitulated, unless they were in only for a quick trade), they were half way of doing things.

The reason also that BPT went unconditional from the start, IMO was that if the ADE Board managed to make it hard and/or getting/squeezing some extra money from BPT to complete the deal, the shareholders that sold out to them already, will not be able to receive any of the extra benefits, if any will become applicable.
Where, if the bid was conditional, and there was some extra money to be paid out by BPT, all of the shaeholders that sold out previously would have had to receive the same benefits as all the others that didn't, or BPT having to return the shares back to them.

DYOR.