Last Thursday night, the world’s biggest miner made a brazen attempt to gatecrash one of the industry’s biggest-ever deals. Yet just three days later, the bid was already dead.

BHP’s last-minute proposal to buy Anglo American and prevent the smaller company from completing its $US60 billion ($92 billion) combination with Canada’s Teck Resources has left investors, bankers and rival executives reeling — especially because the commodities giant spent the past 18 months insisting it had “moved on” from its last failed attempt to acquire London-based Anglo.

Bloomberg