Nope. No reason to hold in light of a coming R/S. There's also no reason to believe that new management is any different than old management.
I won't give them credit for not doing as you say.... They could have announced the merger and then the RS weeks down the road.... because that would just create more losses for new shareholders falling into the trap.
Btw, I think credit goes to old management for crushing the stock.
Hopefully, they at least taught people not to count on a second run based on BS and to get out on the decline.