Nudging mgmt. to monetize assets now.
Another benefit of voting “NO” on the R/S is that it will nudge mgmt. to act a.s.a.p. to close a Cotara license agreement and/or 2C3 license agreement and/or VEA license agreement and/or monetize Avid--- in order to get the stock over $1.00 for 10 days.
By contrast, voting “yes” on the R/S will take the pressure off mgmt to close a non-dilutive funding this fall.
Just to be clear, I am not bashing mgmt. and I continue to support them. I think they’ve done a superb job of avoiding premature deals and building huge pipeline value with very limited resources. I will vote in favor of electing all the same directors for another year.
It’s just that we are now at a crossroad. The combination of NASDAQ listing rules and shorting ploys have forced us to make a choice between monetizing non-core assets prematurely or suffering the effects of a R/S. My vote goes for using the early sale of a few non-core assets to keep our listing.
I see no grounds for accusing mgmt of negligence or bad faith conduct. It’s simply business. Wall Street is on Tustin’s doorstep pushing mgmt. to ask us to approve a R/S for up to 1-for-10 shares, with full disclosure that (a) mgmt. will be protected from adverse effects of the R/S through its new Stock Option Plan and (b) we will be exposed to more dilution and will have less price leverage.
I reject the security and certainty of Wall Street’s R/S game plan because I know from what I hear that Barton Haynes is truly excited about our anti-PS results in SIV monkeys and mgmt. is truly excited about the July and August cancer data coming out of GA.
Bavi really is as good as Avastin or better. If the Company were in a dire state, the Wall Street game plan would be a reasonable solution. But the contrary is true. Bavi is working, more government funding is coming (probably for malaria), Avid revenues are exploding, and the R/S is unnecessary (except as a formality to satisfy old policies of the NASDAQ Hearing Panel).
From what I hear, if we vote “no,” mgmt will be just fine with that vote and will solve the delisting issue by closing the Cotara deal prematurely, perhaps at $300 or $400 million instead of $600 million. On the other hand, if we vote “yes”, that will work just fine for mgmt as well. They are giving us control of the outcome.
We have no one to blame but ourselves if we vote to leave our wallet on the car seat with the door open and Wall Street picks it up. Management is neutral. The choice is ours.
