You probably know more about this than I do, but from how I've seen the goodwill asset derived in the past, it has essentially been the difference between the market value of the outstanding stock (more or les market cap) and the sum of all other assets. In other words, it is adjusted to make the assets balance, and not assessed in its own right. The fact that this stock is so overpriced, considering how greatly impaired it is, is the driving force behind the high goodwill valuation. An effect, not a cause, if you will. The problem with the goodwill valuation is that it lags the market by many moons, so to speak. It quickly becomes utter nonsense when you have such a precipitous decline. It is last winter's market cap, mixed in with todays remnants of the business.
Consider goodwill to be a participant in a zero-sum game. If they were to take an inventory write-down, for example, (which they probably should have done), the effect would necessarily be an increase the goodwill valuation by the same amount.
It doesn't matter any more, as the bulk of the assets and the bulk of the liabilities will move out of the light of day and into Freidheim's private venue before the next assessment occurs.
The remaining stock will be renamed/resymboled and effectively be stock in what is now HVE ConneXions. Sphere 3D was pretty careful (i.e., deceptive) in breaking out their revenue stream in detail. I don't have a clue as to how profitable HVE is. The low price that ANY paid for them would suggest that it isn't a whole lot to write home about. On the other hand, I also recall some of their principals being less than happy with the value of what they got in their end of the deal.
It's not that bad an ending, given the prior storyline. Current ANY investors will be investors in a legitimate operation (perhaps successful, perhaps not), and Freidheim will be stuck with his just desserts - an appropriate payback for his support of the scam measures in the past (the shotgun wedding of OVRL with Glassware comes to mind), where he held all the cards. I know that that is little consolation for those who have lost 99.9 cents on the dollar, but hey, for those who were in a frame of mind to have believed in the get rich quick pitch, they probably would have lost it all another pitch even if they didn't fall for this one. That's about the best spin I can put on it.
