re:"Does pxd spending all this money they got from an earlier sale of properties,make a quick settlement with mosh more unlikely?"
I don't know. However, I recall someone citing that pxd still has a $1b+ unsecured line of credit. They have a $5.84b market cap, although debt/equity ratio is recorded as .85 -still some slack there I imagine...
Not that I have any legal expertise but I would imagine that the judge would glance over available assets and this would have some influence on any potencial award. If the award were so large that it would trigger a filing for bankruptsy, such bk proceedings historically tend to lock up assets and can go on for years in court. More headaches for overloaded court dockets. Do judges look ahead and strive to avoid unnecessary messiness? Hard to say. All in all, I would say that, probably, it would be the least of our concerns at this point in time. Keep in the mind that the case, while looking better and better, is still just moving along steps toward trial, it is not there yet.
It just seemed like an interesting bit of news so I thought I'd post it along with my initial impression which I may have over-dramtized a bit for possible entertainment value.
One thing that I've noticed with stocks that have a "soap-opera" factor i.e. some possible controversy, is that there tends to be a "cover story" for actions/price moves by big money and that big money/funds et al are generally responsible for moves that might be construed as exciting. That would be in bigger stocks like pxd or ldk etc. ("popular" stocks). Not so much pennies like tiny mosh which, with their low floats can pretty much, theoretically be knocked about with a feather, so to speak.
Taking this hypothesis in hand we can look at a few things w/pxd :
PXD pr trumpets that they are buying inland/onshore properties and so supports their relatively recent statements to the effect that they are no longer all that interested in the Gulf of Mexico. Maybe they will claim that, "no, we weren't downplaying the find, we're just not interested in the GOM anymore..." Why not? Well, there's the hurricane factor, that's a plausible excuse.
One could wonder whether with all the stalling, whether someone was waiting for more hurricanes to finish the job. But, no hurricanes, so someone may have been surprised/disappointed...Could the need for obfusgation, indirect cover, regarding a lawsuit in the GOM have any bearing on such lofty business decisions? That would be pretty strange. Whistling loudly, business as usual, as they "walk past the graveyard"... How's that for innuendo? (hey - big time financial journalists do it, why can't I have some fun too? Note that I even made it a little spooky <g>)
pxd insider selling suddenly got active recently. Maybe they think the price of o&g will go down? Of course many pundits keep predicting that every year now while the price soars. But it could be a plausible cover story. Not necessarily concern over some silly lawsuit, right?
I also saw a post i think on pxd board that cited that JPM is selling off their trusteeship department so they opted to resign as a way of tidying up their psckage for sale. A handy excuse, or was their internal outlook on the pending larger litigation a catalyst?
Until the Jan hearing, the main concern remains whether the new temporary trustee will act in accord with MOSH unitholders best interests. Seems like he should...
We won't know til we know.
The risk of failure seems to be going down, but, there is always risk. Some people talk like they're going all in. That's downright reckless. imo.
These sorts of attractive looking things actually come along once in a while. People should think about their "ouch" factor. If things don't pan out for some reason, will you just go "ouch" or end up like some poor sod one sometimes stumbles across on other boards emoting suicidal depression?
Drat I missed breakfast. Guess it'll be brunch now. Before I get _too_ negative... low blood sugar... <g>
