NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[Poor Man -]

maybe LP has a superior reason to still keep them separate.

We all know that Cognate and NWBO are joined at the hip. The same fund and the same fund managers and the same group of investors own and operate both companies. Even with entirely separate management, everyone ultimately works for Linda because she has dispositive voting control as assigned by the investors in the fund that majority own both companies.

Funds like to keep their portfolio companies separate for two principal reasons: First, it provides for diversification of risk that walls off the problems of one entity from potentially infecting the other. Second, it's easier to sell individual assets while controlling the timing of when to sell those assets - in order to gain the best price. (Different portfolio companies also have different tax structures and accounting, different management teams, and may have different investors outside of the fund that are impacted by those difference.)

A merger would also be dilutive to NWBO shareholders since the merger would come about through the issuance and sale of shares from NWBO to Cognate's beneficial owners.

Another reason is that by merging Cognate, all of a sudden Cognate now becomes part of a public company, and then its operations become subject to more intense accounting and regulatory compliance, which is in itself rather expensive.

The reality is that there's nothing to be fixed, and certainly nothing to be fixed through a merger.