Since its rebuff by the government in February, Enel has been looking for a French partner with which to launch a hostile bid for Suez.
UK confectioner Cadbury will soon find out if it will be the target of a hostile bid by would-be US suitor Kraft Foods.
The only regulatory risk posed to the deal is in how long it takes to get done, and time always favors the target in a hostile bid situation.
This should mean that there is no immediate repeat of the leveraged buy-out hostile bids of the 1980s, many of which were disastrous and gave the whole business of takeovers and mergers a bad name.
The other good news is that if any hostile bidder had been eyeing up the Times, they would be crazy to be still contemplating it.