It seems that the deal is done although has the fat lady sung? Check out BBC news.

I calculate that HMV has paid £35m less than they originally offered. This reduction was caused by a deterioration in Ottakar's trading between the original offer and now. The delay was caused by the referral of the deal to the Competition Commission. I supect that the whole affair has cost HMV (and everyone else) a huge amount of money in legal and economist fees (not to mention management time) but at least HMV shareholders have a better deal than they might have done.

Let's now hope that the book trade can get back to selling more books more economically and that the lessons of this sorry affair are well and truly learnt.