Gs, anything is possible. When I state they "willingly did it" - I'm not saying they did it cause they liked it. They had to go to those "lenders of last resort" to hang on.
And as you state, the unfortunate side of that is, a) Dilution typically, lots of it and b) Getting your stock/company now wrapped around the axle of some of the most brutal dudes and finance houses on the street. I don't need to post it again- you've seen that I-hub page someone put together on ASHER and the history/demise of how many companies who got involved with them. And also, the article I sited previously where they show, step by step, how these ASHER type folks do what's called the "ratchet" short, stepping it down, cover, stepping it down, cover, all the way to the bottom, and because of the "floorless convertible" shares and the steep discount they get- the lower they can make it go, the more shares they get, then more money they make.
I stated before, these aren't dudes looking to get a CD rate of return or even Venture money rate of return on their coin(say 25% return on their money) - these guys can make 200% or more on these deals- and turn their money over as fast, and as many times as they possibly can.
And yes, I believe they either a) Often have a "broker/dealer" wing/division that sits right under their own roof with high speed trading desks going right onto the "networks" or b) have close relationships with several "trading/order routing firms" - to whom they then get "commission" type relationships going for routing/sending their order flow to them; the I scratch your back, you scratch mine type deals.
So, the entire thing = collusion type deals where they can yank a stock, especially a penny, where the daily dollar volumes are low (think BHRT, even at 1 million shares a day, at 3 cents is only like $30K traded, like qty-15, $2000 trades in an entire day)- so think of the power these guys can have. They can toss up, as you stated, "orders" onto the network- say "flash" a buy or sell of $2K and swing the stock the way they want it to go- and they open up the spread, either up or down IMO, depending on what they're trying to do. They have a lot of money at their disposal- so lets say they want to move a thinly traded stock, what would it take? Maybe they start tossing up a few $1K or $2K orders to sell, their own, here and their, using their own money- incite a little selling panic, and next thing you know it just tanked 18% in a blink like we've seen, they cover perhaps a short, and just went to the bank.
It's been discussed in many books, there's Youtube videos, 60 minutes about 2 weeks back had a guy talking about electronic networks and how it's all 100% "rigged" now, in his words. Who the heck knows exactly how they "do what they do"- but I don't think for an instance this thing went from about 2 cents, dipped to .0063 or whatever, then not far from that, shoots to .08, then crashed the next 2 days to as low as .025 or something, then back to .06, then now back below .03 and so on- no way IMO this is all "chance" and just "normal" retail folks buying and selling as actual "investors". Let alone look at this recent- you know, "stuff" being plastered "commentary" everywhere, you know, the "wall street movie" dude appearing out of nowhere- and stating all this stuff copied off the BHRT web site, like 8 times in 3 days? What the heck has happened/caused all that? The word used is "promotion"- but for what purpose and why and by who? It sure doesn't add credibility and stability to things IMHO.
And the worst of the worst of course- is if/when they decide to turn and go short. It's only professional level houses that can short a 3 penny stock. And an ASHER is motivated to go short- again, because on "floorless" convertibles, the lower they can get the price to go, the more shares they get when they convert (see the 10-K for the conversion formula- it'll say something like, "based on the avg of the lowest 3 days prices, in the prior 10 day trading period, blah, blah, blah) -anytime you see that, it's a "floorless" or "toxic" convertible, because the lower the price goes, the ASHER type dude actually gets more shares when they convert. It's like being "The House" in Vegas. They've rigged the game so they can't lose. Other than the firm going BK, the ASHERS of this world always make out- cause if the price goes up they make money- and if it goes down, like way down and they're short, they can make even more boat loads of money.
It's a bad deal. There has been talk for a long time of the SEC trying to reign in this particular type of practices- but my personal 2 cents on the SEC, is good freaking luck, I think they're in on all this "stuff" as much as anyone. Like politicians- you pay the right guys a "fee" or "campaign donation" or whatever, and everyone turns a blind eye.
Once on the OTCBB- it's tough sledding, no doubt. Why someone hasn't stepped up to finance um? Don't know? I started reading 10-K's and stuff clear back to the IPO period, and IMO and what I found, they were really already having some pretty bad financial problems clear back then- going on 5 yrs now. They had millions at one point- but were already showing all the signs that bad things were coming- loans, loans with problems, insiders starting to need to chip in to "cover" shortcomings, etc. So, it's a technology maybe just not ready for prime time yet- many would probably argue they never should have gone public at this point. Maybe should have stayed at a laboratory/research level longer? Don't know. I guess they wanted to go right to "trials" and we all know, "trials" means you need some pretty big coin.
As low as the market cap has gotten on several occassions (even now it's a paltry $12 million or something)- someone could have stepped up and bought the entire thing out for a a song IMO. But no one has- don't know why. I mean, lets say it was even like a $25 million offer or something- in the world of public markets and finance, that's noise level money really. Shoot, Yahoo or Google and folks like that- they buy companies from "teen kids" all the time for money like that. Some freaking software gizmo app- that some kid cooked up, and you can read where Yahoo, or Google or Facebook or something bought it for like $20 million, like it was a petty cash drawer level deal.
So, don't know? Your speculations are as good as any. Don't know if investors think it's too early on the technology, or don't like/believe the tech is going to pan out, or at least not for years, or if they're afraid of the "patent" stuff, that some 10,000 Lb gorilla like a Baxter will just come in and stomp um out? Many possible theories- don't really know?
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