antcoster welcome, you basically already said it "And my own thoughts are that Reeltime and Innovative should just merge together."
i'd bet that ICT toy'd with the ROD concept, but realized it stood a better chance as a separate company. The separate company was able to sell enough stock to develop the tech. By not dulluting the stock and announcing the by-back would imply they are serious. It would only make cents that they would merge, but at the same time, ICT does have their own business which could certainly benefit from owning ReelTime, such as the E-Rate vendor approval they received, they've been testing with school districts and one could speculate how valuable a technology like this could be on a national basis.
ICT created RLTR, same CEO, same building. it's all good (but we really don't know anything until they report).
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