International Paper made a surprise cash-and-stock bid of $64 a share two weeks ago.

The surprise bid is the latest turn in a tumultuous two months for Grace.

After Union Pacific made a surprise bid in October, some analysts did not give it much hope.

And a surprise bid upset the planned merger of two big financial exchanges.

After a surprise bid in 1996 to pick up the rights to the Pistons, Fox began planning to launch its network two years later.

The former company made a surprise $5 billion bid for the latter this week.

The surprise bid put recycling back on the table in New York, environmentalists and waste-industry experts said.

That is three times the $500 million offered by the Bloomberg administration in a surprise bid in July.

Their surprise bid of $:13.06 a share, or $21.94, values the British concern at $4.9 billion.

American is expected to reject the surprise bid, which amounts to $20 a share.