Bidders are not hugging victims like they used to. Nowadays they seem to maul them. The old-fashioned bear hug – whereby a bidder publishes an open letter outlining a takeover proposal to pressure the target board into negotiating – is in vogue again.

Kraft used an aggressive grizzly bear hug to put the squeeze on its rival Cadbury; while Xstrata chose the more mild-mannered teddy bear hug to try to push through a proposed nil-premium merger with Anglo-American.