I agree it is not a buyout because it is accompanied with a streaming slide presentation. No need to prepare slides if you are being acquired.
I also thought about Symbian. I still think it is a good guess; wherein WIND essentially takes over the assets and role Symbian created, and all the wireless equipment companies (Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola among others) agree to standardize on WIND for the basic platform (3G, Java, bluetooth, etc.). This is a complex deal and would require lots of discussion, slides, etc. Hard to say what it would do to the stock short term, but it would increase the company’s visibility, making it extremely attractive to institutional investors. After all, being so anointed would propel WIND to nearly 100% share in next generation wireless. Even with a more modest rollout than anticipated as late as six months ago, the revenue stream would be staggering. Once investors appreciate the extent of such a market position, the stock would be off to the races.
A complex deal around OSEK could be another possibility, with upside similar to the above. Actually, if you put your mind to it, there are many exciting possibilities.
The likelihood of a significant pop suggests the shorts should be manipulating the stock as we speak in order to exit by market close. However, whether they cover or not, it will be interesting to see how they interpret possibilities and play the stock. Buying has been so feeble recently that the shorts must be convinced they can do anything they want with the stock. That’s the way it works shorting illiquid stocks – until all at once it doesn’t in a big way.
Allen |
