I'll bet (and I hope) that IB is not so much bidding for Refco as using a 'bid' as part of an aggressive push to attract fleeing Refco accounts. Having the bid out there in the press generates a lot of free publicity - gets IB mentioned next to more well known names like GS, and serves to give the impression it has $$ to throw around. In fact I would be concerned if IB actually won a bid. Think about it. IB has been tremendously successul building their business from the ground up. Seems they have 0.000% experience or expertise taking over and merging another, very different operation. Could lead to problems ... Now as to being aggressive about attracting new customers well, that's all good, I guess. Still, it would be kind of cool if IB could find a way to finagle a small desk for floor trades, that somehow could be entered/comingled with the universal accounts. Now that would be something ...
Refco probably had a ton of dead accounts on their books from years of biz. Refco is an old school legacy biz that was headed for the rocks for years.