RW, FWIW, if you mean a bidding war for a takeover of NPCT, my thoughts are:
It won't happen. Offers will be made early in the game (and might already have been made) but Paul will wisely turn them down. He will sell a percentage of the company or one of its subsidiaries to finance expansion, but never the whole shebang.
In communications with shareholders and at promotional meetings, Paul will make references to the possibility of a buyout, but he will be doing so only because he knows that shareholders and potential shareholders like to hear it. It makes them think "instant riches."
For a big player, the point of acquiring Nanopierce early in the game would be to obtain permanent exclusive rights to the technology. Half a billion would be a cheap price to pay for that, if it enabled you to deprive your competitors of access to the technology and hog it all for yourself. But Paul knows the company will soon be worth way more than a half billion, so he won't sell for the kind of prices that they will offer that early in the game.
In the meantime, NPCT will sign contracts and issue licenses to one major player after another. Share price will skyrocket. A company which acquired NPCT would also acquire the company's contractual obligations -- I don't think that they could legally void those licenses/contracts just to screw the competition. So, the incentive to try to gain ownership of the technology would be limited, while the market cap would have risen to five or ten billion. Thus the incentive to take the company over would be gone.
IMHO if this company is ever acquired by another company, we will all have gotten FSR long before it happens.
Just my totally speculative ideas, but you asked for them! LOL!!
Best regards,
Geoff
