The Endesa takeover - and the golden share

The Endesa takeover saga took a new twist earlier this week when the German utilities giant E.on announced a takeover offer that was significantly above the existing takeover offer made by the Spanish company Gas Natural.
The new bid raises all sorts of issues. Some have a very clear answer in a market economy - the highest price rules - but the popular concept of countries having Strong companies in strategic sectors makes it difficult for Governments not to meddle in such cases.
Surprisingly, in many respects, the bid seems to have raised far less antagonism than the Gas Natural bid. It would appear that both the management of Endesa and the local authorities in Madrid who strongly imposed the first offer are much more open to the second offer. This prejudice against all things Catalan seems to be a very clear argument in favour of greater power to the autonomous regions, as it is clear that some political parties have a problem with big business being based in Barcelona.
The labour Government had not opposed the Gas Natural bid, but they are beginning to voice their concerns about a German company coming along and taking over such a large player.
The EU has sent out a strong warning against intervention and the Economist recently commented on the issue of cross border mergers. If its okay for Spanish banks to takeover banks in other European countries, then there is no reason to stop this merger. After all, the sector is heavily regulated by the Government - so it retains control.
As for the Endesa management, I wonder if their recent advertising campaign which was based around the word "on" was entirely coincidental. The Germany company has been labelled a white knight (or Endesa's saviour) but Endesa "on" is not too far from E.on