What’s a Monday morning without a little M&A news from Sunday. Anadarko has decided to talk to Oxy….. and wow, does that look bad on the Board.

So you get an offer from Oxy – well 3 actually- and then accept Chevron’s proposal and $1b break fee; and then Oxy writes a letter and now with egg covering your face, you think it’s time to engage.

I stand by my view CVX doesn’t raise its bid and now, with Oxy looking more likely, Oxy stock falls to match expectations they have to issue a lot of stock to get the deal done. But let this be a lesson to other Boards who are currently in negotiations: assume everyone will know everything one day so don’t make decisions you wouldn’t like on the front page of the WSJ.