Coincidence? - part 4

Here is a highly amusing tweet from Ed Hammond at Bloomberg:

ed hammond ‏@EdHammondNY  Sep 16

I will strawpedo an entire keg of Beck's if any news outlet can produce a "scoop" predating SAB's public statement on ABI's approach

I'm presuming Ed - who is one of the best M&A reporters on the deal reporting circuit and, I'm told by sources, is a top bloke - hasn't seen Bryce Elder's stock market report in the Financial Times on Wednesday morning or, indeed, my blog posting on Tuesday afternoon on little old Betaville regarding the speculation ABI is about to pounce on SAB Miller.

Here are links to those pieces:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bbf8e4bc-5bcb-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2.html#axzz3lvH5KMxz

http://betaville123.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/coincidence.html?showComment=1442414148730

Or, perhaps Ed doesn't reckon - whether it be old skool or new skool digital stock market reporting - merits being dubbed a  "scoop" even if it does smoke out a confirmations from the companies involved? He is entitled to his opinion and that is fair enough.

But I have been told that this evening one of Ed's colleagues at Bloomberg, Aaron Kirchfeld, has just broken the story that tobacco company Altria, the largest shareholder in SAB Miller, has hired bankers from Credit Suisse and Perella Weinberg to advise on its options regarding the $275 billion mega deal.

So, perhaps my blog posting on Tuesday afternoon revealing the rumour about Altria cancelling its attendance at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference was important, and possibly a "scoop", after all!

Now where's that straw?