We figured something was up last Friday when, after steadily dropping in value since June 19, Manor Care’s stock traded up by more than $3.00 per share during the day on heavy volume of 2.4 million shares.  Final bids had been due the previous Friday, June 22, and it took just a week for the board to sort things out.  We had heard that the buyers were getting a little nervous, and the final price agreed to seems to reflect that anxiety, but was a little disappointing, especially to anyone who had purchased the stock since the beginning of May.  Carlyle is paying $67.00 per share, a level that is lower than where the stock has traded on 20 separate days in the past two months.  The good news is that after Manor Care made its “strategic alternatives” announcement in April, and the stock price jumped to $65.00 per share in less than two weeks, we were not alone in stating that this was about the top value for the company.  If the bidding had gone to the $70.00 to $75.00 per share range, then we certainly would have thought the market had hit the “irrational exuberance” threshold once again.  But even at $67.00, we believe Carlyle is paying top price for a high-quality company that may not have much room for improvement.  We will have a more detailed analysis in the upcoming July issue of The SeniorCare Investor.