Think of a number I'm no expert on modern commerce (a bit of a failing in this job, it must be admitted). In fact, the slightly worrying influence of my son Sebastian led me to believe for a number of months that an Ebay was somewhere for one to store one's designer drugs. Even so, I find it difficult to believe that contemporary purchasing practices have advanced to the point that transactions can be completed without a price being decided - but apparently not. As if the Deutsche Börse "proposed"' bid for LSE wan't enough - an identical proposition to the previous one, oddly enough rejected pretty swiftly by Clara and crew - then last week we had the Euronext "proposed" bid as well. As always, a younger colleague sat in on the conference call to pick up the details. Initially, I assumed that the idiot had fallen...