Well for sure, shareholders were more responsible for the hype here than management, cooking up every conceivable angle as to how they were going to get rich on this deal. If you go back and read the speculation here in July and August, about how the deal would look, it's downright crazy!
However, if people want to start throwing stones at those for "misleading" then let's start with the CEO here. Sorry but saying 5-6 bidders when there were 3 is an outright lie. Saying that they were in the "final victory lap" when it is obvious that the CEO knew at the time that bankruptcy was a LIKELY path they were going down, yet somehow didn't think it was worthy of disclosing to shareholders until it was filed, is misleading, to put it mildly. He also lied to shareholders, saying that they didn't do any insider buying because they were in a quiet period, which was true for some periods, but not the entire year as he led the sheep to believe! Guilty!
Now, this sets the stage for post bankruptcy. No doubt, the CEO will be quoted in glory again and again about how "the future is so bright". And I will reply, oh really, you are going to believe the same CEO who told you this was the "final victory lap" while the plans for bankruptcy were being made? The same CEO who knew at the time of the conference calls that the bids for the ETD would only reach $117 million IF they won that final contract? The same CEO who couldn't count to three bidders properly?
