1.   According to Murdoch, after Prodi told Blair the Italians would prefer an Italian buyer, he dropped his bid.

2.   After the FTC said it would sue to block the merger, Rite Aid dropped its bid.

3.   Branson accused former GTECH Chairman Guy Snowden of attempting to bribe Branson into dropping his bid.

4.   But Ahmanson made it official Wednesday by dropping its bid for Great Western, declining to raise its offer.

5.   Buying another company could make ITT too large to be acquired by Hilton and force it to drop its bid, analysts and investors said.

6.   Credit Suisse dropped its bid last year for Creditanstalt-Bankverein, an Austrian bank.

7.   Elevators, which buy the wheat and sell futures contracts on the exchanges, dropped their bids for the fresh grain.

8.   Geoff Dixon, who takes over as the chief executive of Qantas next month, blasted the decision and dropped the bid.

9.   He hugged Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom he had demonized before dropping his bid for the U.S. Senate last year.

10.   If he drops his bid, McNair predicted, the league could not get nearly as much in expansion fees from either Los Angeles bidder.