iiNet Wars: The Buyout Battle Between TPG And M2 Is Officially On

So earlier this week M2 Telecommunications (“we own Dodo!”) issued a proposal bid to merge with iiNet, effectively upsetting the takeover bid made by TPG last month. iiNet has now told TPG it has until next Tuesday to come up with a better offer than M2.

iiNet has given formal notification to TPG that it will need to increase its $1.4 billion offer for the bid to remain in play. TPG has until 5pm (WA time) on Tuesday 5 May to respond. Conversely, M2 has said that if a rival offer from TPG doesn’t come in, it wants its own proposal ratified by Wednesday 6 May. High-stakes times.

iiNet won’t say which proposal it supports until any counter-offer is received, and comparing them is tricky because one involves cash and one involves stock — but it still seems fairly certain that iiNet will merge with someone.