It is more likely Lew will sit on the 10 per cent stake he is understood to have acquired in a late Monday afternoon raid on Myer stock, and wait it out.

Sources close to the situation say that Woolworths (SA) has been running the ruler over Myer with an eye to a takeover but wasn't in a position to move yet because it was too busy working on the transformation of David Jones which it bought in 2014.

If Lew's ambition to use the 10 per cent stake as leverage to force Woolworths to ultimately pay a higher price for Myer it would be a corporate deja vu moment.

Back in 2014 he bought a blocking stake in David Jones which he used to force Woolworths to buy the remainder of Country Road (Lew was stuck in Country Road as a minority shareholder) before he removed the roadblock and enabled the South African retailer to reach their goal of taking over David Jones.

It was the kind of corporate chess manoeuvre that is typical of the rags to riches retail entrepreneur who is known for his patience and his readiness to employ a hard ball strategy.

This time around if Lew's game is mainly about holding onto a stake in Myer to keep Woolworths at bay it would be more likely he bought the stake personally, rather than via his listed vehicle Premier Investments, which houses most of his retail assets including Smiggle, Peter Alexander, Just Jeans, Portmans Jay Jays, JACQUI.E and Dotti.

If the shares were acquired by Lew personally there would be no need to disclose the share buying until Wednesday afternoon. If the shares were bought through Premier it might trigger a 'material' change provision which would require Premier to announce the acquisition immediately in order the market was informed.

It seems at this stage Lew - in classic form - is playing his cards close to his chest.

In a statement to the stock exchange on Tuesday, Myer noted the high turnover and speculation of potential corporate activity, but said it had not received any communication in relation to the share trading or any corporate activity.

None of this means that Lew doesn't have longer term aspirations to buy the rest of Myer. He was once chairman of the Coles Myer and was ultimately ousted from the board. He has a long memory and avenging this will be something has has never lost sight of.

The timing however is interesting. While the move appears to have been triggered by the threat that the South African Woolworths had ambitions for Myer a few other points are worth considering.

The first is that Myer shares are trading towards the bottom of a five-year range so it could be considered a cheap time to buy. The second is that Myer's just announced first half profit was higher than expected - showing that the new management are gaining some traction in their five year turnaround strategy.

(However it's worth noting that the Myer's sales number was a bit disappointing.)

Lastly if Woolworths took control of Myer it would capture all of the high end department store market and become a much more formidable competitor to the chain store apparel retailers in which Lew is heavily invested. It would need to get around any concerns of the competition regulator but, if successfully navigated, it also be able to make enormous cost cuts in consolidating property, back office and management.

Lew would also be able to extract synergy benefits associated with operating his chain store brands and a department store.

Having said this, buying a department store at a time when their sales and profits are under intense and increasing pressure from international apparel entrants like H&M and Zara is a risky play.

No one understands this pressure better than Lew. Premier's most recent half year profit results show the apparel brands (other than Peter Alexander) are suffering no growth or sluggish sales growth.

And one can say what they like about Lew but he is no fool.