Macduffy I hope you aren't relying on Etrade's market Cap figure as I made the same mistake & I was mildly bearish then.
At $33.57 share price BHPs market cap is a whopping A$176BILLION ! So if you weren't that impressed before, what do you think now.

PSE I think BHP was an economic juggernaut for about 5 years or so. Take out a few horrendous decisions & write offs from time to time.
However them & RIO & Vale have killed the iron ore market out of share ego.
And Saudi Arabia is doing to them in oil what they have tried to do to others in the iron ore market.

I can just see this spin off being a complete give away for current shareholders as well.