@grandslam... By now, it is clear that the delisting was part of a larger strategy to reallocate extremely limited resources from accountants to manufacturing and commercialization. I suspect that Dr. Musick was hoping that the finances would improve in time to catch up on the reporting before the SEC caught up to what they were doing (or not doing). COVID finally put an end to any possibility of that (plus, there’s a point where catching up on the reporting just isn’t worth it anymore).
At that point I think the Board decided to view the delisting as an asset rather than a black mark – an opportunity to regroup and eventually do an IPO for required funding in lieu of the series of small-time private placements that they had been pursuing to limp along. Unfortunately, they also used that time as an opportunity for certain key players to rob the equity store (e.g., Zamora). Not a lot we can do about that now. But it doesn’t kill us.
VB is a strange and unique case. Things rarely work this way. But here we are. The encouraging thing about the IPO, as stated, is it is numerically impossible for them to destroy legacy shareholders – the small size combined with the rules of the NASDAQ do not permit it. That doesn’t mean that they can’t change the filing. In fact, I suspect they will, after they are done testing the waters. But they would run into valuation problems if they take it too far.
I am reasonably confident that legacy shareholders will emerge with something of value. It might not be the home run scenario that I was hoping for, but I’d be quite happy with a solid ground rule double at this point. And that will all come down to the clinical trials. IPO + encouraging Phase 1/2 results = surge in share price. The players are at least now on the field for that to happen.
