Clearly they didn't make an offer they couldn't refuse, because the Government refused, and rightly so, one of their best decisions in recent months.
Even though when the EU bailed them out, they were required to sell “state assets” like their stake in EI, also they also have to implement spending cuts at the same time, which would be partly eased though the proceeds from the sale of their stake
Seriously, what is it with you and EI selling their slots???
LHR is full; BA needs to launch additional medium/long-haul routes to help compete with LH/LX/OS/SN and AF/KL/AZ (along with several others) and EI is one of the biggest holders of slots at LHR (who operate on routes already served by BA)
Now that BD has been folded into BA, there are not many “major” owners of slots left, so they have to buy some from other (and smaller) slot holders