Sorry Tryoty, but I think you are mistaken. Six years ago, I held a stock that did a private transaction to another company for substantially above the current share price. It was not a complete buyout and the market price immediately reflected the PR'd negotiated price of the buyin. This is not too uncommon if an outside company is trying to purchase controlling interest.
You may be partially correct that the purchasing company has to offer the same price to the common shareholders. This just happened a few months back with Microsoft. It was obviously not a controlling interest but there was an interest by a specific party that offered to buy up to a certain number of shares for a specified price that was (I think) about 15% above the current price at the time for MSFT.
As I mentioned yesterday, I think that if (BIG IF) the rumors have some truth to it, the purchasing entity(s) would be happy to pick up as many shares as they can possibly come by and will gladly offer the same price to the general shareholder. I am also pretty certain that the reasons for the transaction to not be a complete merger or takeover is that they need Offor to maintain a substantial number of shares that will reflect the success or failure in the future of the rights currently granted. This is a STRONG incentive for Offor to keep his political pressures in place for the benefit of both him and the new entity (along with the common shareholder - Win, Win, Win). I also am guessing that by doing this type of transaction, the interested entity(s) were able to get a price low enough for them to purchase without proven reserves along with allowing Offor to maintain a large enough holdings to capture the big payoff when oil is struck. Again this could ultimately be the biggest win for the common to small shareholder.
I am hoping that a XOM or Sinopec does NOT successfully get a complete buyout now (for say $2 per share) before there are proven reserves. Within 2 - 5 years, this stock could be double digit $ if a good amount of oil is found. By having a buy-in of sorts (as currently rumored), the common shareholder will get the immediate boost in share price to approximately the purchasing entities negotiated price which will allow shareholders to get a short term pop and access to some cash if needed yet also allowing them to hold shares for the larger pop when oil is found. Again Win, Win, Win.
